


CAROLINA (Given a Chance)

by darkmarkburning, staybeautiful



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Famous/Not famous, Friends With Benefits, Jealousy, Louis wants to be an actor / Louis becomes an actor, M/M, Popstar Harry, Really he's a self proclaimed quadruple threat, Recreational Drug Use, This is the origin story of Harry's mermaid tattoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 01:51:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14683938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkmarkburning/pseuds/darkmarkburning, https://archiveofourown.org/users/staybeautiful/pseuds/staybeautiful
Summary: “Harry Styles is on TV!” Niall yelled from the living room.Louis sighed and climbed out of his bed. He started talking before he was even fully out of his room. “What the hell is a Harry Styles?”or Louis will swear on his life he doesn’t know a Harry Styles, but that won’t explain why the lead single off Harry’s album, “Carolina”, is most definitely about him.





	CAROLINA (Given a Chance)

**Author's Note:**

> We signed up for the Big Bang this year on literally the last day and our idea consisted only of "What if Harry wrote "Carolina" about Louis." That being said, it was not an easy one to finish. We probably wouldn't have if not for our wonderful cheerleader and beta V. Thank you so so much!!!
> 
> Just some notes on this fic:  
> It is written in two different timelines. Before and after "Carolina" comes out. All of the before is in Harry's POV. They are also marked with different song titles from his album. Everything after "Carolina" is in Louis' POV. 
> 
> The TV show Louis is on is based off of the cancelled (but wonderful) Undateable, which during its third season was entirely live episodes. His character is based off of the character Justin.
> 
> If you want to listen to Harry's album you can find it [ here](https://open.spotify.com/user/imytrouble/playlist/1R7po0UiXGkp0FMc9Oas9M)

Louis woke with a start from a scream in the living room. The sound was followed almost immediately by his bedroom door slamming against the wall. Louis’ eyes were barely even open properly, but his chest lurched realizing he was probably about to die. He didn’t even have time to come to terms with it before the covers were stripped off of him and his leg was being yanked down the bed. 

Louis let out a yelp and finally was able to focus on who was in the room. “What the hell, Niall? I thought I was about to die!”

Niall dropped his foot. “You need to get into the living room now. I mean it!”

Louis sat up and scrambled for his glasses on his bedside table. He could hear music in the living room and he didn’t understand why that required his presence. Niall yelled to him again from the living room and Louis called out, “What the fuck, Niall!”

Niall yelled back, “Harry Styles is on TV!”

Louis sighed and climbed out of his bed. He started talking before he was even fully out of his room. “What the hell is a Harry Styles?”

The first thing he saw was Niall sitting on the couch bouncing a bit in excitement and pointing at the screen, the milk in his bowl of cereal sloshing at the edges. And then he saw the most aggressively pink suit he’d ever seen on the TV. Niall had paused what looked to be the “Today Show”, but he could see that there was a stage surrounded by people and in the center of it all was a small stage filled to the brim with a band and a man in a hot pink suit. 

“Louis!” Niall screeched, still bouncing on the couch. 

“I’m right here, Niall, don’t fucking yell.”

“I’m pretty sure Harry Styles wrote a song about you!” 

“I don’t even know who that is, Niall,” Louis sighed. He tried to rub some of the sleep out of his eyes and pulled his shirt down from where it was still bunched up under one of his armpits. 

“‘Course you do. We met him at Big Payno’s party in the winter.” Niall munched loudly on his cereal, a bit of Cap ‘n Crunch falling out.

“For God’s sake, Niall, stop calling him that! His name is Liam. Lee-yum.” 

Niall waved him off and turned back to the screen. He pressed play and screams filled the room. “You’ll see.”

The music started as Louis flopped over the back of the couch and knocked Niall slightly in the head with his foot. He didn’t even feel bad because he was woken up at the ass crack of dawn for this. He heard a couple “Oh yeah!”’s come through the speakers, but he was still glaring at the side of Niall’s head. 

He didn’t look up until this so called _Harry Styles_ started singing, “She’s got a family in Carolina..”

Louis held his breath through the entire song. He didn’t look away from the screen. He didn’t move a muscle. Because honestly, _what the fuck?_

The song ended with one last, “Oh yeah!” shouted into the microphone. Louis cleared his throat and finally looked away from the screen. Niall was staring right at him and he wasn’t sure how long he had been watching him for. 

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Louis said calmly. “That isn’t about me.”

Niall didn’t even seem to hear him, “I almost shit my pants when I heard that first verse.”

“It’s about a girl, Niall, did you hear that part?” Louis rolled his eyes. He sang, a small mocking lilt to his voice, “She’s a good girl.”

“You call yourself a good girl all the fucking time,” Niall said laughing. “Like at least three times a week.”

Louis let out a small gasp and put a hand to his chest, “Well I never.”

“Oh you do. And you scream it to make sure everyone knows it.”

Louis rolled his eyes and didn’t even validate Nialls comment with a response.

“One: you’re from North Carolina,” Niall started, counting it out on his fingers. “Two: You talk about your nana too much in public. Three: You get pretentious about books. Four: You’re an annoying cunt. So basically…” Niall wiggled his eyebrows when he stopped speaking.

“All of that is categorically false.” Louis sputtered. “I’ve never been pretentious once in my whole goddamn life.”

Niall cackled loudly. “You’re full of shit this morning, aren’t you?”

“Whatever,” Louis grumbled. “I’ve never heard of Harry Styles before, so there.”

“Well,” Niall continued. “You might not remember Harry Styles, but he sure remembers you.”

Niall turned back to the TV and fast forwarded through the ads and pressed play when Styles came back on. They stayed on the couch and watched the rest of his set. Louis learned from the hosts that his second album would come out at the end of the month. The album cover kept flashing up on the screen - a naked and tattooed Harry Styles facedown in pink bathwater. Louis was a little surprised, not at all what he would have expected a naked photo to be; it was practically the opposite of erotic. 

The last song he played must have been the most popular one from his last album because Louis actually recognized it. It used to play all the time on the top 40 station when he still worked at the shitty shoe store last year. He could hear Niall singing along softly next to him. 

“I didn’t know this was him,” Louis offered.

“I thought you didn’t know who he was?” Niall asked with a smirk. 

Louis shoved his foot into Niall’s face and dug his toes into Niall’s cheek for a second before it was swatted away. “Shut up.”

After the Today Show ended, Niall and Louis watched a couple hours of cartoons before Louis had to leave for rehearsals. He got dressed carefully, still relishing that he was working, that he was an actor for real now. He’d been in LA for three and a half years and it was three years before he scored his first real part. He put on jeans he had washed semi-recently and a shirt that didn’t have wrinkles in it. He carefully swooped his hair. He forgot entirely about Harry Styles.

This time last year Louis had been working at a crappy shoe store in a dingy stripmall and occassionaly picking up shifts at an Italian restaurant to make rent. Now, he was was regular on a midseason replacement for NBC. Most days he couldn’t even believe it.

The show was a live sitcom on Friday nights. They performed once for the east coast and then a few hours later another live segment for the west coast. He liked how ridiculous they were allowed to be; that they could break the fourth wall - which they did in almost every episode - and that they often made jokes not about the characters they played, but about the actors themselves. The hardest part about the whole show was trying not to piss himself laughing on live TV.

When he arrived at the studio he waved a hello at two of the other actors, Charlotte and Samantha, who were chatting on the set already, and grabbed a coffee from craft services. As he blew it cool he started to mentally run through the script and let the noise in the studio fall away. His phone was in his hand and he scrolled through it mindlessly, his thoughts stuck on a joke from the first scene.

The week they spent rehearsing was close to being Louis’ favorite part of this whole thing. It almost beat out making a room full of people laugh on live television. Almost. The thing about _Real Friends_ was that they didn’t ever receive a full script. It was mostly plot points that the writers wanted the episode to cover and sometimes some specific jokes that they wanted squeezed in. The rest of it they figured out in the week leading up to the live show. Even then they always tried to mix up a line or two for the live shows to wriggle out a genuine reaction from their castmates.

Louis was startled out of the second scene by someone in front of him saying, “How’s it going, man?”

He looked up to see James in front of him. His character, Ryan, was Louis’ character’s, Josh’s, best friend and roommate. James was a nice enough guy and his last show had been cancelled the previous summer. When they’d met during auditions Louis had had to bite back the jealousy he felt that James picked up jobs so easily.

“Good,” Louis said, tossing him a smile. “I’m excited for the musical act this week. Can’t wait to have Charlie Puth in the studio with us. We go way back to my younger years… getting drunk at Hollywood parties and jumping off roofs with him and Liam Payne.” Louis sighed wistfully, but couldn’t stop the smirk creeping onto his face. 

“Ah, your younger years. Otherwise known as last summer?” James said with a raised eyebrow. Louis was one of the youngest and most inexperienced people on the show. He was only beaten out by Sam, who was just twenty-two, but she was a former Disney Channel star and had more episodes under her belt than the rest of them combined. 

A PA grabbed them both and pulled them onto the set. There were only two sets they filmed in, both facing the audience. One was a bar and the other was Ryan and Josh’s apartment. They were starting today in the bar. He and James joined the five other castmates on the set. He looked down at his phone still clutched in his hand and sighed heavily. He exited out of the article he had pulled up and then he deleted it from his browser history. 

No one needed to know he had looked up and read a Popsugar article called “Who is Harry Styles’ song ‘Carolina’ About?”

When Louis got home later that afternoon after five or six run throughs and some basic staging, Niall was nowhere to be found. He was probably out busking with a couple of other Irish friends he had found in a bar a couple months ago. Louis locked the door to his bedroom anyway, just in case. 

He pulled up Youtube, even trying to pretend to himself for a moment he was going to see what was new in his subscription box, before searching for the video of “Carolina” from this morning. He cringed through “Says I remind her of home” and “never saw herself as a west coaster” in the first verse. And when it hit the desperation of “I hope she hears me now” he clicked out of the tab. 

He searched the song on Google again, his teeth digging into his bottom lip and his breath coming unevenly. And… well. Google had a lot more answers now than it did a few hours ago. 

Apparently Harry’s fans had hunted the girl down - her name was Townes. An article he read said her dad heard “Carolina” on the Today Show this morning, just like he had, and just knew it was about her. Which… he wouldn’t want his dad to hear a song saying how good he felt and think it was immediately about his child… but to each their own. 

Louis sent the article to Niall and then a follow up text of just the middle finger emoji. 

He should have given up when he read that. There was no reason to keep reading about the damn song. And yet he read until he found more and more. 

He wasn’t surprised when he read she was friends with someone in his management team. Wasn’t surprised when there was a picture of them posted together ages ago. So, it was just a cheap piece of PR then. 

That was fine, totally fine. He didn’t even know Harry Styles. So it didn’t matter anyway.

—-

_CAROLINA_

Harry wasn’t sure why he was here. He should have been home, trying to write a few songs for his next album. But he’d spent most of the day in the studio, writing a song that he ended up scraping, and he couldn’t take his head space anymore. It was just that this album was his chance to finally break it in America and he needed it to be good. He was getting a lot of pressure from the label and he was worried if he took too much longer they might rescind on their promise to let him write. 

The problem, however, was that he was completely and unequivocally stuck in a rut. He’d had a great month in Jamaica figuring out the sound he wanted and had penned a couple great songs and half a dozen that he probably should have burned. But now, he had literally zero ideas of what to write about. That was why Harry had said yes when Liam had invited him to his party. He’d moved to LA for exactly this reason, to meet people and gain new experiences to write about. And well, he had to start somewhere.

“Harry,” Liam came up to him at the gate to the backyard, clapping an arm around his shoulders. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

“Looks like a fun party,” Harry said. “Thanks for the invite.”

“Of course,” Liam said.

Harry looked around the backyard. There was a makeshift dance floor that had been set up next to the pool, and Harry noticed Zayn was manning the DJ booth next to it. Zayn was actually a model, from somewhere in middle America, but somehow he always ended up in charge of the music. He’d met Zayn a few times back in London, usually at an afterparty for fashion week, and reminded himself to catch up with him later. People looked like they were having a good time with drinks flowing quite freely. No one seemed to be having as much fun as the guy in the pool, however, who was sitting topless on a pink flamingo floatie with his sunglasses on and a drink in the air. It might have been perfectly normal if it wasn’t ten at night. “Looks a really fun party,” he said again, his face a mix of incredulity and amusement. 

Liam followed his gaze to the pool and barked out a laugh. “I see you’ve spotted Louis.”

“What is he even doing?” Harry questioned.

Liam seemed to ponder that as he watched Louis for a moment before answering, “He’s either decided to marry the flamingo, or he’s trying to get Niall to do something stupid. It could really be a number of things, all of which would equal utter madness, but then, that’s Tommo for you.”

Well, at least he didn’t seem boring. Louis Tommo was much too good-looking to be mundane and boring, Harry thought.

“Now, as a gracious host,” Liam said, “I kindly ask that you proceed to the kitchen, get yourself some refreshments in the form of cheap spirits and get properly smashed. I have to go grab the fire extinguisher. Don’t ask.”

Harry looked at him, slightly worried, as Liam casually walked towards the house. Harry would have imagined any instance that needed a fire extinguisher would mandate a brisk walk at the very least. He was a bit scared to find out why Liam needed one.

Instead, he made his way inside the patio door and to the house, bypassing more people hanging out. Harry recognized a lot of faces, and waved to a few he knew. 

“Well, if it isn’t Harry Styles,” Perrie Edwards said and kissed his cheek when he entered the lounge. She and Jade were hanging out by the couch. “I didn’t know you knew Liam.”

“Yeah,” he said, kissing Jade’s cheek. “Met him a couple months ago. Having fun?”

He hadn’t seen the girls from Little Mix since early in the summer, but they’d gotten to know each other pretty well when they had guest coached on his season of the X Factor. They’d helped him a lot since he had disappointingly come in third. Their knowledge of the industry had actually stopped him from making a terrible deal and he would probably be grateful forever. 

“Always,” Jade said, eyeing his cupless hands. “Are you not drinking?”

“I just got here, so I was on my way to grab one,” Harry said. 

“Good, you’ll need it,” Perrie said. “I heard Tommo wants to play fireball.”

“Fireball?” Harry repeated. There was Louis’s name again. Apparently he was a big commodity at this party, Harry was getting the feeling.

“Don’t ask,” Jade laughed. 

“That seems to be the general answer when it comes to this Tommo,” Harry said, feeling slightly wary.

Perrie grinned. “You haven’t met him yet, have you? He always seems to be around one of these things. You will love him, maybe a little too much even.” She laughed and wiggled her eyebrows at him. 

Harry rolled his eyes, though there was a smirk on his face. “You do realize I don’t just hook up with every gay man I meet, right? I mean I don’t think I’d even be able to do that.”

The girls laughed. “Maybe not every single one, but you never know. But that wasn’t really what she meant, meeting Louis is kind of like getting hit by a storm,” Jade said. “Now, go get a drink before fireball starts!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Harry saluted her and made his way in the direction she pointed him in to the kitchen.

There was a crowd around the island in the kitchen where the drinks had all been set up. Harry had to give it to Liam, he knew how to keep his guests well hydrated. There were a lot of options, but Harry went classic and safe and poured himself a vodka and sprite. 

“That’s not nearly enough, mate,” the blond Irishman next to him said. He picked up the vodka bottle and poured a generous amount in Harry’s cup. “No one leaves Liam’s parties even remotely sober.”

“I’m getting that picture,” Harry said, looking at a couple to the side doing body shots. “I’m Harry.”

“Niall,” he said, putting his hand out, which Harry shook. “Now drink up, you may not be Irish, but now that you’re under my supervision we can’t have you falling behind.”

“No, we can’t have that,” Harry said with a smile and took a big gulp of his drink. 

“I’m a guitarist,” Niall said conversationally, leaning his back on the kitchen island and facing Harry. 

“What?”

“A guitarist,” Niall repeated. “That’s what I do. Everyone here is either an actor, singer or DJ, or they’re aspiring to be something in LA and don’t give a shit what it is. Me, I play the guitar. So which one are you?”

Harry was going to reply that he was a singer, but he never got the chance as someone came into the kitchen, screaming Niall’s name. Harry turned to see Louis walking over to them. He had taken his sunglasses off and had a shirt on now, though his wet hair was dripping all over it and his feet were leaving wet footprints behind with each step closer to them. 

“I’m not deaf, Lou,” Niall grinned. “What do you want?”

“Liam got the fire extinguisher, and Olly is grabbing the bowling balls so I thought I’d come let you know we are about to play fireball and you’re on my team,” Louis said, taking Harry’s cup from his hands and taking a sip before handing it back and making a face as it went down his throat. His voice was a bit scratchy, but soft around the edges, almost a drawl. Harry just stood there, watching him. “Niall, you could have saved some vodka for the rest of the party. You didn’t have to put it all in his cup. Wait, hang on.” He looked fully at Harry now and squinted a bit. “Who are you?”

“I’m Harry,” he said. This was one of the reasons he was glad to be in LA now. In London, it was impossible to go anywhere without people knowing who he was and his whole life story. It didn’t matter if they hadn’t watched the X Factor because it had all been splashed across the Daily Mail as well. But he hadn’t made it in America yet. They didn’t know him. That would change, of course, once he broke out, if he broke out. _God, he hoped he broke out._ But it was nice while it could last. “Nice to meet you.”

“Well, Harry,” Louis said. “I’m Louis Tomlinson.”

Oh, so Tommo was a nickname. “That’s a nice accent, where’s that from?” Harry asked before he could stop himself. Harry wasn’t going to admit that he liked the way Louis said his name.

“North Carolina, born and raised, on the farmlands is where I spent most of my days,” Louis said, with a smirk and took another drink from Harry’s cup. 

Niall rolled his eyes. “That was bad, I’m embarrassed for you.”

“Hey, shut it, Horan,” Louis glared. He looked back at Harry. “You’re from across the pond like Niall here, I see.” Louis said the last bit with a terrible English accent and Harry couldn’t help feeling endeared. 

“Yeah, in Holmes Chapel, chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool, baking some bread in the bakery,” Harry finished awkwardly.

Niall just stared at him. “That was even worse. I’m more embarrassed for you than him. Like I have to leave right now, that’s how much secondhand embarrassment I’m feeling right now.”

Louis laughed as Niall left the kitchen and then grabbed Harry’s cup again, walking to pour it down the sink, but thought better of it at the last second and downed the rest. “Let me make you an actual drink that won’t down an elephant. That was vodka with a splash of sprite, yeah?”

Harry chuckled. “Yeah, thanks, that would be great.”

Louis proceeded to pour him a drink, and then held up a hand to stop him when Harry went to grab it. Louis took another cup and poured the drink into the new one. “Mixes it better,” he said, handing him the new cup. Then he started to make a second one for himself. “Let me guess, he told you no one is allowed to leave Liam’s party without consuming a deadly amount of alcohol?”

“Something like that,” Harry said with a chuckle, taking a sip. “Thanks, this is better.”

“Well, he’s not wrong,” Louis leaned back against the counter. “Though, Liam would prefer the deadly amount to be consumed throughout the party. Less of a chance of vomit on his stuff, you see.”

“Get drunk, don’t vomit, got it,” Harry said.

Louis grinned. “So Harry from Holmes Chapel, what brings you to LA?”

“I’m a singer,” Harry replied.

“Ah, an aspiring singer,” Louis smirked. “Paying your dues and all? Booking all the bar mitzvahs and weddings? Busking on the street and selling your craft for nickels and dimes?”

“Something like that,” he said. The smirk on Louis’s face made Harry think Louis actually knew who he was, or at least had heard of him. He wasn’t too surprised. The internet had gathered him a bit of a following in the States. 

“I’ve been there,” Louis said.

“Oh? You’re a singer too?”

“Not really. I do a bit of this and a bit of that, but mostly I’m an actor,” Louis said. “But we all pay our own dues, don’t we? For you it’s the baby showers and sweet sixteens, for me, it was playing Peter Pan at Disneyland.”

“You did not,” Harry choked on his drink.

“I did,” Louis sighed dramatically, though there was a smirk on his face. “I rocked those green tights for all of two months before I got fired. In my defense, I wasn’t even working when the thing that I allegedly did happened.”

“What did you do?” Harry barely knew this guy, but he knew it was going to be great, whatever it was.

“Allegedly,” Louis said. “There is no proof.”

“Okay, what did you allegedly do?”

“Well, someone cut an outline of Tinkerbell into the hedge outside the park, front and center,” Louis explained casually. “A very, very bad outline, mind you. And I mean, I don’t know why they even think I’d be a good topiarist. Maybe I look like I own a chainsaw? I don’t know, but they alleged I did it. And I mean there may have been some spray paint involved, and they may or may not have found some cans in my locker, but three other Peter Pans had access to that locker! They can’t prove it was me!”

Harry laughed. “So it was you, wasn’t it?”

Louis fake gasped. “How dare you, I’m a good girl, I would never,” Louis said, but followed it with a wink and then he took a long drink from his cup. “Anyway, my point is that that was me paying my dues, then I had an audition for a TV show, and now I got a call back for the next round. The way I see it, this here, moving to LA for you, me, everyone else, it’s our journey, our Canterbury Tales if you will.”

Harry had to stare at him for a moment. “That’s really deep,” Harry said finally. “Does drinking make you deep? I feel like if Liam’s party motto is everyone consumes a lethal amount of alcohol, you’re either way ahead of the rest of us or way behind.”

“Fuck off,” Louis laughed. “Maybe you’re not on a journey then… a quest perhaps?”

“A quest?” Harry said and let out a chuckle. 

Louis took another drink. “You seem like the type. I’d peg you as a Galahad.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Harry said and wrinkled his nose. “You’re making me regret how poorly I did on my A Levels.”

“Sure you do, popstar,” Louis said with a grin. “We’re talking King Arthur here, Knights of the Round Table, Galahad: ‘and he shall be the best knight of the world.’ You’re with me, I know it!”

Harry was ready to tell him he really wasn’t with him, he really wasn’t prepared to talk about Medieval Literature while tipsy at a party in LA. He came totally unprepared. But he was interrupted before he got the chance. 

“Oi, Tommo,” Niall poked his head into the kitchen. “Olly is back. It’s time for fireball.”

Louis grinned. “Great, get the fire torch, I’m coming. Let’s do this! Team Loall for the win!”

“For the millionth time, we have never, are never and will never call ourselves that,” Niall said and left the kitchen again.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, we’ve always been Loall,” Louis said to Harry. “Now, refill your glass and meet us out back. It’s time for fireball!”

He left Harry in the kitchen staring after him. Jade was right, Harry reasoned. Meeting Louis definitely felt like a storm. 

Later, when he’d managed to drag himself into an Uber and then crawl into his bed he pictured a perfect storm and lightning blue eyes. He dreamed about questing and fireball, which was surely _something,_ if not the strangest drinking game he had ever seen. He dreamed of someone shouting with glee, “This feels so good!” Words wrapped in a honey warm accent playing like music to his ears.

And when he woke in the morning he couldn’t get the tune out of his head. 

\---

It was different for Louis to actually be invited to a party like this. A McMansion in Calabasas was the set up for Demi Lovato’s newest music release, the last bang of her house party tour, and Louis had actually been asked if he’d wanted to attend. Like formally, through his agent and everything. 

So, when they finished filming for the west coast segment for the show he hustled back across town to his apartment and stared at his closet for a solid thirty minutes. But he knew he looked good when he got to the party in his dark wash jeans cuffed above the ankle and a mostly sheer burgundy scoop neck. Just as he was about to leave Niall came home from work and Louis grabbed him, shoved him in his closet and wouldn’t let him come out until he changed. 

It was almost weird showing up and not having to think about how he would fanagle his way in - he just gave his name at the door and security waived them through. He couldn’t help but laugh as he walked through the home. It was all very stylized with white draping and neon lights everywhere. Metallic walls and glittering floors came to life under all the flashing lights. There was a steady beat pulsing through the house, but Louis couldn’t pick out what song it was.

As he worked his way through the crowds he noticed a couple of spaces clearly set up for filming, but the majority of it was what was advertised - a house party. Niall was buzzing next to him and when their eyes met they both broke out in laughter. 

“This is fuckin’ crazy, man,” Niall said. 

Louis couldn’t help the wicked grin that spread across his face. “Let’s find the bar.”

They worked their way through the house until they found a cramped kitchen. Niall reached over the island and grabbed the first bottle he came in contact with and offered the half full bottle of whiskey to Louis with a wicked glint. “You think we can finish it in one go?”

They had gone to a German restaurant the week before and Niall had lived out all of his Das Boot fantasies and now he clearly wanted to bring them into reality. 

But Louis wasn’t really one to be a quitter. 

Niall grabbed a few other people from the kitchen, a pretty blonde and a tall hipster looking guy. Both of them had clearly been here much longer than them. 

“You can’t leave until it’s gone. Yeah?” Niall said looking at all of them. 

“I’ll start.” The blonde girl said. She grabbed the bottle from Louis’ hand and drank for several seconds. Her head was tilted back and the neon lights made the glitter on her face go insane. It was like she was lit up in a thousand little rainbows. When she pulled back her face scrunched up in a wince before passing it to her left. She wiped some whiskey from the side of his mouth and then sucked it off his finger. 

The guy drank slightly less and then Niall chugged for a good twenty seconds before passing to Louis. He licked his lips and tipped the bottle back, drank until his throat burned too much and passed it to the girl next to him. It went around a couple times more before the blonde girl drank it empty. 

“Well that was fun,” she said. She left the empty bottle on the counter and walked away before anyone could say anything else. 

“I…. I think I love her,” Niall said and then laughed loudly. “Like damn.”

Louis laughed with him, the room swaying a bit as he rocked forward a bit. He reached out to Niall and put an arm around his shoulders, both of them giggling. 

“Lemme make you a drink, Ni,” Louis said between laughs. “I think I have an idea for what to do next.”

Louis squeezed into the kitchen, his body pressed into on all sides by people as he wiggled his way through. He finally reached a counter, and like Niall had, grabbed the closest bottle to him. The label on the bottle went in and out of focus for a moment before he realized it was rum. He poured a heavy amount into two plastic cups and the closest thing he could find to a mixer. The label had been peeled off, but he hoped the dark liquid was coke and poured it into their cups. 

He took a big gulp and shrugged. It didn’t really taste like anything. 

By the time Louis escaped the crowded kitchen his drink was half empty and Niall was gone. He shrugged and went off on a mission. 

He didn’t see Niall again for several hours and by the time his friend stumbled outside where Louis was, Louis had gathered a crowd. 

He was standing on a small strip of grass by the pool with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He had found a tarp in the garage and he’d pulled the hose over to make it into a slip and slide. Someone had dumped a bottle of glow in the dark paint into the water. There were black lights strung up in a palm tree and they cast a purple haze over the whole yard. 

Louis’ chest was glowing under the light. And his jeans were soaked as well. The end of the slip and slide had gone muddy and had turned into some erotic form of wrestling. Out of the corned of his eye Louis could see one of the cameras pan towards him. He turned his face into the light and he knew it was going to catch the splatter down his neck. He couldn’t help but grin, his mouth twisting around the cigarette. 

“Did you play fireball?” Niall asked. He nodded his head towards a burnt bit of grass and the bowling ball that had rolled near a fence. 

“One of the neighbors leant it to me,” Louis said, the smoke billowing out of his mouth. He offered the cigarette to Niall, who took it with a shrug. “I couldn’t get as much fire as I wanted to.”

Niall took a drag, passed it back to Louis, and then pulled off his shirt. “This looks sick.” 

He dove headfirst into the tangle of bodies. Louis let out a small laugh and then took another pull on his cigarette. He took a slow scan of the party and then did a double take. He could swear, no….

He squinted into the neon lights and the smoke, then shook his head and looked again. 

He dropped his cigarette and then stubbed it out before making his way across the yard. He swerved around people laid out of the grass and props scattered around. He came to a stop behind a tall curly headed stranger. 

“Well if it isn’t Harry fucking Styles,” Louis said loudly, the music blaringly loud this close to the house. 

Harry turned around slowly, but he was already grinning by the time his eyes landed on Louis. He saw Harry look at his face, the splatter on his cheek, the mess on his chest, and then back to his eyes. Louis didn’t miss him lick his lips. 

“I saw you on TV,” Louis said with a raised eyebrow. “Your suit made my eyes hurt.”

Harry’s smile widened. He took a sip of his drink, so slowly, his eyes never leaving Louis’. 

When Harry lowered his drink, Louis snatched it out of his hand and downed it. He licked his lips when he finished the sickly sweet punch. “You wrote a song about me.”

“Did you like it?”

“If you’d wanted my attention you could have just called,” Louis teased. He started backing away, raising his eyebrow in a slight challenge, but for what he wasn’t even fully sure. And then his smile dropped and he said, “Instead of putting my whole life on the radio.”

Harry grimaced slightly and Louis disappeared inside. He worked his way through the kitchen, his blood thrumming with alcohol and a bit of weed he had bummed from Snoop Dogg. 

Harry caught up to him just as he was sucking down the last bits of a bottle of tequila. It was completely out of his control the way his tongue licked the rim of the bottle as he looked in Harry’s eyes. Pure accident really. Almost animal instinct. 

The lights inside were flaring through various colors, tossing shadows and a bit of black light all over the room, covering everything in vibrant hues. He heard Harry’s intake of breath when the black light cascaded over him, saw his eyes skim down Louis’ chest. He knew Harry was seeing the hand prints on his side, the teeth marks on his shoulder. 

Harry leaned forward slightly on his toes, he was standing so close already, pushed forward by the crowd in the kitchen, Louis almost thought he was going to kiss him. Instead he spoke right in front of Louis’ mouth, close enough to stick his tongue out and lick Louis’ bottom lip, “And here I was thinking you were a good girl.”

Louis turned away slightly and grimaced. “I liked you better when you were playing sweet sixteens.”

“I was never playing birthday parties,” Harry said. “I was on the X Factor.”

“Isn’t that worse?” Louis said, looking back at him. 

“Depends on who you ask,” Harry said tilting his head.

“I was asking you, Popstar,” Louis said before sliding by Harry and out the back door. 

One of the producers was gathering people together for a group shot to go at the end of the video. There was a lot of jumping and mouthing along to Demi’s song. Louis let himself get a little lost in the masses and when the scene was finished he didn’t see Harry for the rest of the night. 

On Monday Louis went to the studio for their first read through at ten am. He definitely wasn’t twenty-two anymore because it took him the whole weekend to sleep off Friday night, but he was back to normal by Monday morning. He ran into James outside the studio and they both went to grab a cup of coffee at the shop on site. They chatted casually about their weekends as they made their way to the reading room. 

Samantha was already in there with one of the writers and Louis nodded hello before taking a seat. Over the next few minutes the rest of the cast filtered in and one of the writers started to pass around the script. Finally the director, Suzanne, began speaking. 

“So this week on _Real Friends_ , Ryan and Carly are arguing over the way Ryan uses women and Josh is stuck in the middle. Meanwhile, Waldy pretends to be blind to get a girlfriend. Let’s begin.”

Louis flipped open the script and saw just a few short sentences on the first page and a couple different directions. 

“What if at first I just forgot to wear my glasses and she accidentally thought I was blind,” Eric, the guy who played Waldy, tossed out as an idea. 

“Oh oh!” Samantha chimed in after him, “Waldy is leaving the eye doctor and his eyes were dilated.”

“He accidentally grabs her inappropriately while reaching for the door,” Eric continues. 

“And when he’s kind of stuttering and trying to think of an excuse he says he can’t see and she just kind of assumes,” Charlotte said. 

Louis saw the director nodding along and a couple of the writers making notes. 

Samantha peeked at Louis and said. “I think this is the episode we finally do a Grease duet.”

James laughed next to him. “That’s how we get him to stop being angry at us for fighting. 

Louis smiled and shrugged. “Josh can’t resist a good sing along.”

The cast and writers kept going through the script, making notes and ad-libbing a few scenes. When they were finally starting to wrap it up for the day the director interrupted them one last time. 

“I forgot to mention, we were scheduled to have Julia Michaels on the show this week, but I guess she was double booked. We managed to get Harry Styles last minute. Apparently he’s a fan.”

Louis went from shocked to mildly annoyed in about half a second. He couldn’t help the snort that he let out. It was pure accident. Honest. 

The girls looked excited about the new development and even Eric said, “‘His new song is sick.”

So James was the only one to hear Louis’ displeasure. When James quirked an eyebrow in inquiry Louis just rolled his eyes and smiled. 

It would be fine. They were professionals. 

 

Harry wasn’t coming into the studio for rehearsals until Wednesday. So, the blocking they did on Tuesday went down without a hitch. Louis was even starting to forget about the whole Harry Styles thing. It was such a non-issue he didn’t even tell Niall he was going to be on the show. 

Of course he found out anyway when the commercial played on TV that evening and announced the musical guest. Niall laughed so hard Louis had to leave the room. 

 

It was totally fine on Wednesday. Louis spent a normal amount of time on his hair and choosing his outfit and no one is a witness to say whether that is true or not. They spent most of the morning working through the script they’d worked on at the start of the week and building the scene in the sets. The group of them were still running ideas and talking through little moments while they ate lunch. 

So, Louis was almost surprised when they got back to the set and the band was setting up. He stopped short and Eric ran into his back. Louis tried to laugh it off, but he could tell it came off a little stilted. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t know where my head is.” 

He smiled and kept walking. Samantha waived him over to the apartment set and he joined her on the couch. 

“Suzanne said to watch the sound check so we can think about what we want to do during the opening credits,” Samantha said. For each show the cast members went into the audience and usually did something funny while the band played and the opening credits rolled. It was a fun way to loosen up at the start of the show and utilize the live studio audience. 

A few minutes later Harry walked out from backstage, followed by what Louis assumed to be his personal assistant, as well as Suzanne. He could see her blushing. 

Most of the cast was lounging in the apartment set and those who weren’t wandered up when Suzanne stopped in front of the set. 

“Everyone, this is Harry Styles. Let him play through at least once before you start brainstorming.” She nodded at them all and then gave Harry a smile before walking off to talk to one of the cameramen. 

Harry smiled sweetly at them and said hello before turning back to the band and the small stage. Louis didn’t know if Harry looked at him because he was looking in the other direction.

Louis thought they’d do a mic check or take a few minutes to get going, but the music to “Carolina” started only a few seconds after Harry got on the stage. Louis only made it halfway through the first verse before his gaze moved to Harry. He couldn’t help it. 

Except when he turned to look at Harry… Well, Harry was already looking at him and singing, “Better swim before you drown…”

Louis swallowed hard. Harry leaned on the mic stand and turned to sing the chorus with the band, breaking their eye contact. 

He watched Harry for the rest of the song, but Harry didn’t glance in his direction again, until briefly, as he sang, “And I hope she hears me now.” Louis looked away then, lip pulled between his teeth to hold back a small smile. 

The song ended a minute later and the cast and crew let out a small applause. Harry thanked them and turned to speak with the band. 

Next to him, Samantha said with a sigh, “So cute, isn’t he? And that accent.” She fanned herself for a moment and Charlotte laughed from the other side of her. 

“Hey, Louis,” James said from the floor. “Aren’t you from North Carolina?”

“Why James, I can’t believe you remember,” Louis said, laying on his accent thick. 

“Kinda funny isn’t it, that song?” he said, then started to hum and sang, slightly off key, “She’s got a family in Carolina…”

Louis rolled his eyes at him, but his heart beat picked up a tick.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if we put that into the show?” Eric joked. 

“Oh my God, can we?” Charlotte laughed. “We can hum it during the show in the parts when Ryan, Carly, and Josh are arguing.” 

“No,” Louis said. “No, no, no.” He leaned his head back onto the couch. 

“Yes!” Samantha said with glee. “This is happening whether you like it or not.”

So the thing was, they tended to pick on one of the cast members throughout a whole show. In the first episode they leaked James’ number and he was fielding calls from viewers the whole night through the show. It was hilarious.This week was turning into Louis’ week, with the Grease sing along and now this. 

Louis let out a loud groan and the rest of the cast around him broke out into laughter. They were still laughing when Harry started his next song, his major hit from his first album. Next to him, Samantha sang along under her breath. 

When he finished they all applauded quietly and then the cast all stood up to spread across the empty stands for the audience, dispersing themselves evenly. 

Suzanne stood closer to the stage Harry was on and directed them through it. Moving Eric down a couple rows and putting Charlotte and Samantha on the same row. The cameramen started to track their positions. 

“Louis,” Suzanne called to him. He was near the top of the stands. “Come down to the floor, you can hold the logo.”

She looked to mark her clipboard and Louis knew better than to argue. It wasn’t worth the hassle. He climbed down the steps and came to a stop next to the stage. One of the assistants handed them the sign. Suzanne gave him a nod before walking over to one of the techs and speaking to them about lighting. 

“Hey Lou,” Harry said right into his ear. Louis’ head jerked up and he turned his head to see Harry leaning at a very precarious angle off the stage to speak so closely to Louis. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Suzanne spilled your secret, Popstar,” Louis said, rolling his eyes and a smirk pulling at his lips. “She told us this is your favorite show.”

“Maybe I was just being polite,” He said with a matching smirk. 

“Or maybe you’ve started to stalk me?” Louis quirked an eyebrow. 

Suzanne called out for Harry to go again. Before he stood upright, he said quietly to Louis, a filthy grin on his face, “Maybe I missed you.”

Louis scoffed and turned back towards the cameras. He thought he could hear Harry chuckle behind him, but the music started and he couldn’t tell for sure. 

By the time they had run through the intro and outro twice more, the cast needed to get back to rehearsing the actual show. Louis didn’t look back at Harry when he made his way onto the set, he swore. 

Thursday was more of the same. Harry didn’t even really need to come in, he’d rehearsed and staged the day before. He’d do a soundcheck before the first show on Friday, but Thursday was a day he didn’t need to be in the studio. He still showed up for an hour or so and talked with a few of the camera guys, and the woman in craft services, and Suzanne for a bit. Then he fiddled around on the stage, looked at Louis approximately thirty four times, and left. 

Louis just hoped no one noticed. 

Louis was leaving hair and makeup on Friday when Harry cornered him in front of the bathrooms. Somehow, even in two inch heels on his boots, Harry had moved silently through the hallways. All of a sudden Louis looked up and Harry was leaning against the wall next to him.

“Shouldn’t you be rehearsing?” Louis asked, a bit snarky. 

“I already ran through it all, but thank you for being concerned,” Harry said, batting his eyelashes. 

Louis snorted out a laugh. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t.”

Harry sighed. “You’ve always been such a sweet talker, Lou.”

“Well not everyone can be as smooth as to dedicate a whole song to someone they don’t even know.”

“It’d be a bit of a stretch to say we don’t know each other at all, don’t you think?” Harry said.

“I don’t know what you could be referring to.” Louis sniffed. 

Harry leaned in closer to Louis, their faces very nearly touching, his hand coming to squeeze Louis’ waist. “I’m sure you do, darling.”

Louis took a step back and rolled his eyes. He wagged his finger at Harry and said, “I’m working and there’s no touching the merchandise.” 

Harry gave him the smallest of a pout and Louis couldn’t help but laugh as he walked away. His heart was beating a little faster. He didn’t know how he could have forgotten how intoxicating Harry could be so close. Just ridiculous. 

When he rounded the corner he almost ran into James. 

“Steady there,” James said, catching Louis by the arms. 

“Sorry, I was distracted.”

“No worries.” James let go of him and turned to walk with Louis towards their marks. “You and Harry Styles seem… friendly?” 

Louis looked over to him and then shook his head, “Oh no. I don’t even know who Harry Styles is.”

“Sure you don’t, Louis,” James said with a smile. “You know, it does make sense though…. That song…”

“No, no,” Louis said seriously and then laughing. “Noooooo.”

But he knew he’d already lost. And sure enough, in nearly every scene that night someone found a way to reference "Carolina" and look directly at him. It was fine, totally fine, it was only national TV. They could probably see him blushing through his makeup. They could probably see him blushing from outer space. 

\--

_KIWI_

For some reason Harry expected to see Louis hanging out of the window when he walked up to the house. What a disappointment that he wasn’t, that there was nothing distinct about the contemporary mansion on the beach. 

His friend Johnny blew out a breath at the large white house. “Well posh, innit?”

Harry let out a laugh. He thought of the mansion he was renting, where Johnny had spread out his things in the guest room, and shook his head. 

Harry arrived at the party out in Malibu wondering if Louis would be there. One of the techs in the studio, Javier, had mentioned it in passing. He’d heard about it from the last producer who had overheard his artist mentioning it. So, it sounded just like somewhere Louis would surprisingly show up. But that’s not why he was here. He just wanted a drink on this lovely… Tuesday. 

Harry didn’t realize it was only Tuesday. He’d been putting in a lot of hours at the studio and if he was being honest, he’d admit most of those hours were wasted on shitty lyrics and overdone melodies. He’d only had a few brief moments of genius in the last couple of weeks. "Carolina". "Stockholm Syndrome". They were good. The best thing he’d written since Jamaica. 

He wandered through the house and made polite conversation with the few people scattered around the kitchen and living room. There was some kind of EDM blasting from the living room sound system and he could feel it through the floor in the kitchen. He was surprised Louis wasn’t dancing on the kitchen island with his shirt rucked up over his hips. He couldn’t quite put into words why he had expected to see him there, with his hips moving and his arse curving in his jeans, but his brain had conjured up the image and he was disappointed it wasn’t his reality. 

There was a giant punch bowl on the counter, filled only about halfway with some kind of red juice. Which was coincidentally Harry’s favorite drink. 

He ladelled some out for himself and a second cup for Johnny, who muttered a “cheers” before tipping his cup towards Harry and taking a big gulp. He hoped it wasn’t roofied. 

“This stuff will get you fucked,” Johnny said, his body doing a small shiver as the alcohol worked its way into his body. 

“That’s the plan, isn’t it?” Harry asked with a cheeky grin, before taking a large drink himself. It was sweet and then burned on the way down. 

Johnny groaned and rolled his eyes. “I’m gonna go see who’s here. Maybe this is when I get to finally meet Selena Gomez.”

“Good luck with that, mate,” Harry said with a laugh. Johnny sent him a wink before heading out to the patio outside where the majority of people were gathered. Harry downed his drink and grabbed a second one. 

Harry wandered out a few moments later, but got stopped in the living room by someone he met at the VMA’s in the summer. By the time he finished the conversation his drink was gone. He headed back into the kitchen to grab another drink. 

There was a mermaid in the kitchen. 

No, that wasn’t right. Harry squinted and then let out a laugh. There was a mermaid chandelier in the kitchen. Or maybe it wasn’t a chandelier, but it was hanging from the ceiling and was made completely out of a shiny metal.

His mouth hung open. He blinked slowly and it disappeared, so he blinked again, but faster this time. And still it hung beautifully over the countertops on the back wall. How he hadn’t noticed it earlier he wasn’t sure.

He moved slowly closer to it, ignoring completely the other people in the room, zeroing in on the sculpture. When he was directly below it, he tilted his head up to look at it. The details on the tail had his mouth parting and his eyes going wide. Her hair was springy pieces of metal flowing out of her head, scattered as if she was underwater. 

He wanted to touch it. He wanted to own it. He wanted… he swallowed hard, he wanted this tattooed on his skin. 

He reached his hand up slowly, his mouth still parted, his eyes still wide, and when he had stretched it fully and couldn’t quite reach her strand of hair he slowly lifted onto his toes. He was just about to lay his hand on it when he head someone clear their throat behind him. 

Harry lowered his arm. He went back onto his heels. He turned to look and couldn't help a dopey look spreading on face. 

“She’s incredible,” Harry said to Louis. 

The corners of Louis’ mouth turned up, holding in a laugh. “Did you drink the punch?”

Harry remembered the empty cup in his hand and showed it to Louis with a pout. “It’s empty.”

“Yeah, ‘course it is,” Louis said with a snort. “You don’t come to these things very often, do you?”

Harry continued to smile and gave a shrug. 

“See, I know that,” Louis said with a smile of his own. “Because if you did, you would know that the punch is always most likely laced with ecstasy.” 

Harry blinked rapidly and then gave Louis another smile. “I’m totally fine.”

“Sure, you are.” Louis said, his own smile slowly melting into a lazy, gooey mess like Harry’s own. “I am too.” 

Harry nodded and turned back to the sculpture, the spectacular, the magnificent, the mermaid. He felt Louis turn next to him. Heard his breath catch at the sight from this angle as well. The wires that kept her suspended almost melting into the background and she was truly swimming through the air above their heads. 

“You know,” Louis said. “Her hair, each strand is tuned to play a different note.” 

Harry took a deep breath and repeated his words from earlier, “She’s incredible.”

Louis let out a hum of agreement next to him. He turned his head slightly towards Harry and quirked his head to the side. “Do you want me to show you something else?”

Harry found himself nodding quickly and taking another deep breath. Louis smiled so wide he couldn’t tell if Louis looked elated or sinister. But he was probably about to find out. 

He felt Louis grab his hand and as he was pulled out of the kitchen he gave one last look back to the sculpture, closed his eyes briefly as they exited the room, and when he opened them again he could feel the burn on his arm where he knew he’d keep her forever. 

He followed Louis blindly through the house. He was sure they weren’t moving very fast, but the rooms blurred around him. The could have been half a mile away when they stopped and he would have had no idea. He wouldn’t even have cared. 

When the world righted itself, he was standing on a balcony looking over the back patio. The pool was glowing brightly below and there were people strewn about the yard. Louis was climbing over the railing. 

He opened his mouth to yell, maybe, or tell him to watch out. But when Louis made it over the railing he didn’t fall to his death, instead he was stood on a flat part of the roof. 

“You coming?” Louis tossed over his shoulder as he made his way across the shingles. He didn’t wait for Harry’s reply before moving a bit farther along and disappearing from view. 

Harry didn’t think about it, he just flung his body over the railing. He stumbled a bit on the landing, but he was still upright. Up on the roof he realized how warm he was, how hot the night had gotten. His shirt was clinging to his chest now, and he tried to unbutton a couple more buttons on the ridiculous Hawaiian shirt that had become his signature look since moving to LA. That definitely did not help though, so he yanked it off completely. It didn’t really make a difference, but he didn’t mind his chest being on display, so he left it. 

He moved slowly across the roof, slower than Louis had. He thought Louis probably had a lot of experience with things like this. Just a few more steps and he was next to where Louis was leaning back against a steeper part of the roof. 

“You know the best things about these stupid rich people houses?” Louis asked, tugging on the bottle of champagne he must have snatched from the kitchen. “They have the craziest roof lines.”

Harry nodded along, even though he didn’t really know anything about that. He hadn’t given a good look to the roof on the house he was staying in - he didn’t know if it was crazy or not. He kind of hoped now that it was. 

Finally, the cork popped out of the champagne and Louis let out a small but pleased yelp. He tossed the cork over the roof and into the yard below. He waited a moment, held a finger out to Harry for him to wait as well, but when he didn’t hear anything he took a big gulp from the bottle. 

The sight did something to Harry. He felt like he was swallowing glass, or maybe it was cotton candy - he couldn’t quite tell. 

It felt like Harry’s brain was still catching up because he finally asked, “So if you come to these things so often, why would you have drunk the punch?”

“Oh,” Louis scoffed. “I had tried to snort coke off Shawn Mendes’ dick, but he wasn’t into it.” He sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. Harry couldn’t quite tell if he was being serious or not. 

“I probably would have let you,” Harry’s mouth said before his brain caught up. “Wait.”

He didn’t have time to come up with an excuse or an explanation because Louis was laughing so hard he had curled over on his side. His laugh started out small and tinkling and sent shivers up Harry’s back and then all of a sudden it was thundering out of him. His laughs were shaking the house, crackling into the night and ricocheting inside of Harry. 

Harry’s eyes blew wide open, just like they had with the mermaid. His lips parted and he breathed in deep. Harry was staring as Louis hiccuped and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of Harry’s flower printed shirt. 

“I think with the way you’re looking at me,” Louis said around a couple of hiccups, while grinning wider, in the same almost twisted way he had in the kitchen before. His eyes were literally on fire. “I think I’m having your baby!” 

The last bit he yelled up into the night. Straight at the moon. Straight at the stars. 

“You’re what?” Harry sputtered slightly, laughing too, incredulous at the moon and the stars and the person next to him. 

Louis lost it again next to him, small giggles puffing out, but he pointed a finger at Harry and shook his head, “It’s none of your business.”

“Yeah alright,” Harry nodded. “Is it her business?” He asked pointing to the moon. 

“Everything is her business, Harry.” Louis said mock seriously. “You know whose business it also is not? All y’all’s down there.” He gestured to the throng of people below them. 

Harry picked up the bottle of champagne from where Louis had set it down on the shingles and took a large gulp from it, the bubbles fizzing aggressively in his mouth and making his ears hurt. 

“Okay but,” he said around his swallow. “You don’t even know half the people down there.”

Louis sat up straighter and his manic grin returned, “Wanna bet?”

Harry hadn’t realized he had just issued a challenge, but now that he was aware he couldn’t back down. He looked out at the people below, them blurring together a bit under the fairy lights and a few bright strobing lights. 

He pointed to a girl in the pool, one he could swear he’d never seen in his life before, and said, “Okay, who is she?”

Louis peered over the edge of the roof and Harry could tell when he saw who he had pointed at. He gave Harry a wicked grin, which to Harry meant he already lost. 

“Oh, you mean Melissa?” Louis started.

“That’s not her real name,” Harry interrupted with an eye roll.

“How would you know?” Louis tossed back at him, with a smirk and an eye roll of his own. Harry bit his lip and shrugged, a small laugh falling out. Louis continued, “So, Melissa, is an actress. Or, like half the people here, she wants to be one. But I’ll be honest, I did a test read with her once and...,” Louis grimaced. Then he wiggled his eyebrows a bit and put his finger to his nose and made a snorting sound, which Harry took to mean she did a lot of coke. 

“Don’t be rude,” Harry said and elbowed him in the side. Louis took another drink from the bottle, but Harry could see a smile curving on his face as he drank. 

“I mean, she also has a cactus named Phil, which is pretty cool.”

“How do you know all of that?”

“I know everything about everyone.” Louis took another drink. 

Harry leaned back and smiled up at the moon. “You didn’t know about me.”

There was a moment when the words hung in the night between them and then Louis’ face was over his, blocking out the moon and the stars. “I do now, don’t I?”

Harry blinked slowly and Louis’ face went in and out of focus above him before Harry lifted up a few inches and connected their mouths. 

He could feel Louis smiling into his lips as they pressed back into Harry’s. He thought he could feel the roof start to dig into his back as Louis put more weight on him, but the moment he thought of it the pain faded away. Instead he was left with zig-zagging tingles shooting up from his toes and dancing around his insides. He could feel them running through his fingers as he pushed them into Louis’ hair, on his tongue as he ran it over Louis’ bottom lip. He could feel them coming from Louis - from where his thumb pressed into Harry’s cheek, from where his knee was touching Harry’s outer thigh. 

He did the only thing he was capable of doing: he leaned farther into Louis’ touch. He pushed up closer, he kissed a little harder, a little hotter, a little wetter. Louis let out a groan and scooted in between Harry’s open legs. 

Now they were touching from groin to chest and Harry couldn’t resist hitching his hips up just a fraction, just for a bit of friction. He felt Louis’ hand by Harry’s head tighten in reaction and it pulled at the pieces of hair by his neck. 

He pulled his mouth off Louis’ when his breath caught in his throat. Louis didn’t seem to mind a bit, he moved down to Harry’s neck and kept clenching and unclenching his fingers, pulling slightly on his hair each time. Harry could barely catch his breath. He could barely keep track of what was happening, it was just his neck and his scalp and Louis’ lips and Louis’ fingers. There was nothing else. 

He rolled his head to the side, pressing his forehead into Louis’ wrist and giving Louis’ lips more access to his neck. They pressed and then sucked, he felt Louis’ tongue slide over his skin, and then his teeth skim down behind Harry’s ear. He exhaled a long breath and then Louis’ fingers pulled again and he sucked the air right back in. 

“Jesus,” he muttered. Louis huffed out a small laugh that sent goosebumps down Harry’s spine. 

It kicked Harry back to reality and he moved his hands from where they were clutching at the back of Louis’ neck and skimmed one down his back and then to his waist and gave it a squeeze. Louis’ hips pushed forward in a slow grind and Harry’s hand running down Louis’ back came to rest just above Louis’ arse. 

He tilted his head back and caught Louis’ lips with his own, pulling Louis’ bottom lip between his teeth before pressing back in. The kissed in spurts, slow and heated one moment to biting and sucking and shuddering against each other the next, then back to the slow press of their lips and soft caresses.

Harry pushed his hand on Louis’ back down and his fingers skimmed inside the top of his trousers. His hand at Louis’ waist dipped down as well, skimming under his t-shirt, running his fingers softly against the skin of Louis’ stomach. Louis’ tongue flicked against his at the contact. 

Louis pulled his mouth off Harry’s and then leaned back on his heels. When Harry look up, all he could see was Louis with the moon glowing behind his head. He looked otherworldly. He looked magnificent. Harry told him so. 

Louis huffed out a laugh and then tugged at Harry’s belt as if he was asking for permission. 

Harry smiled languidly at him and then asked, “Did you want me to get it myself?”

Louis rolled his eyes and then unclasped it and unbuttoned his jeans all in one quick movement. He had Harry’s cock out of his pants before he even had a chance to blink. 

“Look at you,” Louis said staring down at Harry, sucking in his lip and then letting it out with a sigh. His eyes were three shades darker, his voice was three octaves deeper. “Got your dick out in front of the whole party. You like that? All they’d have to do is look up.”

And he was right. Harry could hear the people laughing below. He could hear the ocean in the distance. He could see fairy lights peeking up from the end of the roof. They were exposed and maybe Louis was right. Maybe he did like that.

Harry stared at him, he couldn’t help it, his breathing labored, his fucking toes tingling and then he tilted his head back and smiled. “‘S just us and the moon.”

Louis scratched lightly at the soft hair on Harry’s thigh and Harry couldn’t help his leg twitching into Louis’ hand. “Sure thing, Popstar.” 

He leaned forward and fit his mouth over Harry’s again, his tongue pushing into Harry’s mouth just as his hand wrapped around Harry’s cock. It was a lot at once, so much so he couldn’t help but arch into both at the same time, feeling it from the tips of his ears to a spark in his ankles, and he let out a long groan into Louis’ mouth. 

He felt electricity race up his calves each time Louis’ thumb nudged the top of his cock on the upstroke. He pulled his lips off Louis’ and pressed a kiss onto his cheek, rough with stubble, and then across to where his jaw meets his neck. Harry sucked a lightly and then tongued over the spot before sucking harder as he felt Louis gather the precome and rub it on the head of his cock. He wanted to look, wanted to see Louis’ hand working him, but instead he took Louis’ earlobe between his teeth and tugged gently. 

Louis let out a long moan and Harry could feel it vibrate up his throat. He tugged again and then kissed his way down the column of Louis’ neck. He sucked at the base of his neck, mouthing over his collarbones and biting at them gently. He couldn’t think beyond his mouth on Louis and Louis’ hand on him. 

He wrenched his head back on a good pull and let out a large groan into the sky, to the stars, and Louis slapped his free hand over Harry’s mouth. He let out a chuckle and bent his head to whisper into Harry’s ear, “You want them all to hear you, Harry? You want them all to know I’m wrecking you with just my hand?’

He then nipped at Harry’s throat. Harry let out a low sort of whimper. He leaned up slightly on his elbows, needing all of a sudden to get his hands on Louis. To get him in the same sort of state. 

He didn’t wait for permission like Louis did with him, he pulled the button of his jeans open, tugged the fly down and pulled his pants down far enough to get Louis’ cock out. It sprung out hard and flushed to the tip. Already he could see a bead of precome pushing out of the slit. 

“‘S a pretty cock,” Harry said softly, rubbing his thumb across the head. Louis copied the motion and did it on Harry’s cock as well. They matched movements in tugging each other off, moving slowly and then quickening their pace. 

They moved together at once, their mouths crashing together, hitting their teeth a bit and then soothing over with their tongues. They stroked in unison and Harry could feel his muscles start to tighten in spasms and little electric jolts shooting around his spine. 

He knocked Louis’ hand off his cock, for just a moment of reprieve, and then wrapped one arm around Louis’ waist and pulled him closer in Harry’s lap and used the hand that was stroking Louis’ cock and circled them both. They let out matching groans. 

Louis’ hands pushed up into Harry’s hair and he was tugging gently at his scalp. Harry knew he was on the edge, so so so close. He stroked faster, the heads of their cocks rubbing together and leaving him breathless. Just when it felt like too much, like he wasn’t even going to make it, he came with a long groan into Louis’ mouth.

He slowed his pace and took a deep, staggering breath against Louis’ mouth. He moved his hand to cover only Louis’ cock and then started stroking in earnest, extra slick from his own come still splattered into his hand. Louis’ buried his head into Harry’s neck, his fingers still tugging on Harry’s hair, for no more than a minute before he let out a wet moan and came over Harry’s hand. 

He slumped slightly against Harry’s chest and Harry leaned back farther onto the roof for just a moment before he rolled himself off to be lying against the roof as well. 

Harry’s breathing was starting to get back to normal and he tried his best to wipe the cum onto the roof. 

Louis laughed next to him and said, “That’s disgusting.”

Harry just shrugged and smiled lazily up at the night. “It’s probably biodegradable.”

“All natural,” Louis tossed in. 

“Exactly!” 

He peeked over at Louis who he could see was smiling up at the night as well. After a few minutes of silence between them, only the thirty or so people below them filling up the night, Harry tucked himself back into his jeans. He saw Louis do the same. 

He opened his mouth to say something, he wasn’t sure what, but something he was sure. Like how he liked living in LA. Or what his dream role would be. Or just for his phone number. 

But instead Louis sat upright and said, “We should go in the ocean.”

“The ocean?” Harry asked, a little thrown off. He had been working up to… something. His head was still orgasm cloudy, a bit slow still. 

“Yeah? You like the ocean?”

“Sure,” Harry said. “Yeah, you know the wind makes nice waves.”

Louis turned to him and them smiled slowly. “Yeah, yeah, that’s true.”

He stood up all at once, ready to go. He held out a hand to Harry, to haul him up, and once he had he plowed his way back across the roof, over the railing and back into the house. 

And Harry was still standing there, trying to figure out what just happened. 

\--

Louis’s phone was ringing — again. He didn’t even have to look at it anymore. He knew who it was; it was the same person every time. And again, he took great pleasure in fishing it out of his pocket and declining the call as he opened the door to his and Niall’s apartment. Immediately, he wished he hadn’t come home. 

On the coffee table there was the largest, most obnoxious bouquet of flowers he had ever seen, and next to the flowers, sitting on their couch, was a grinning Irishman. Louis rolled his eyes as he kicked the door closed with his foot and threw his keys onto the little table for keys next to their door. “Who’d you sleep with to get those?” Louis asked Niall.

Niall rolled his eyes, though the grin did not leave his face. “Sod off, you wanker. They’re for you,” Niall said. “Besides, if I got flowers after a night of debauchery, they’d be twice this size.”

Louis laughed and walked over, falling onto the couch next to his roommate and putting his phone on the table. He didn’t have to read the card to know who they were from, and quite frankly, he was taking great pleasure in thinking of the best way to get rid of them. So far fire seemed the most fun option. Or the garbage disposal. He saw an envelope on the table next to the flowers, and it was opened. “You opened it,” he asked Niall. Damn it. Now Niall would tell him what it said, and he’d have to know. He’d much rather burn them without seeing it at all.

“Well, of course,” Niall said, like he hadn’t committed a crime. 

“And?” he prompted, because okay, he was a little curious. Maybe just a smidge.

“And you are invited to Harry Styles’ album release party!” Niall said excitedly. “He must really want you to come, there’s the official invitation and a personal letter he wrote asking you to go. Bet he doesn’t do that for everyone.”

“I don’t even know why he’s doing it for me,” Louis mumbled, just loud enough for Niall to hear it. “I don’t even know him.”

Of course, his phone had to ring at that exact moment, just his luck. Louis looked pointedly away from his phone while Niall glanced at it. “Rude name here” Niall laughed. “Right, you really don’t know him. You gonna answer that?”

“Nope,” Louis closed his eyes, willing his phone to stop ringing.

“Are you going to go to the album release party at least?” Niall asked.

“Nope,” he said again.

“What?” Niall exclaimed, picking up a piece of stationary. Louis guessed it was the note Harry had written. “You have to go, mate! He invited you personally.” Niall waved the note around in his face.

Louis rolled his eyes. “I don’t have to go just because I got a personal invite. Not every personal invite has to be answered, Niall. Would you go to a party if the toupe’d cheeto personally invited you?”

Niall just stared at him. “Are you seriously comparing and invite from Harry Styles to Donald Trump?”

“No, I’m just saying, you don’t have to answer a personal invite,” Louis explained rationally.

“Okay, well you’re going to this party even if I have to drag you there myself,” Niall said. “So you might as well accept you’re going.”

Louis sized up Niall momentarily, wondering what his chances of getting out of this were. If he knew Niall, and since they’d been friends forever and living together even longer he would like to say he did, he knew his chances of evading the Irishman’s demand were going to be slim, and so he crossed his arms. “Fine, but I’m not going to like it.”

Niall just grinned. “Sure, mate, whatever you say.”

\--

_WOLVES_

Harry wasn’t sure coming out tonight had been a good idea. He would rather have stayed in and written some more songs, but then, he was suffering from writer’s block again. He had needed the inspiration, and so, when his friend Cara had suggested he come out with her and her friends to The Playhouse on Hollywood Blvd, he had tentatively agreed. 

“This is exactly what you need,” Cara said in his ear over the music when they entered the club. “Let’s get a drink.”

She led Harry over to the bar where her friends had immediately congregated and ordered a round of shots, handing Harry one. Harry had no idea what it was, but he downed it anyway. He was here to have a good time, after all. “We’re going to go dance,” she said.

He nodded and leaned back against the bar, ordering himself a vodka and sprite first. He enjoyed people watching, especially in clubs. There always seemed to be interesting stories going on, and well, maybe he could get inspired by one. 

Harry had been standing there for a bit, gazing around and having a few drinks, when he saw him. Louis was, of course, smack dab in the middle of the dance floor, having what looked like the time of his life. Harry would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy to see him, even if just barely in the darkness of the club. Louis was — something else. And that wasn’t just the alcohol talking. He forgot about everyone else, and just watched Louis for a bit, as if they were the only two people in the club. Well, only the two of them and the guy dancing behind Louis, pressing up against him with his hands tightly on Louis’ hips. Louis seemed to enjoy the attention the guy was giving him. If Harry was a tad bit jealous at the sight of it, well — no one had to know.

Then, suddenly, Louis looked over, as if he had felt Harry watching him and their eyes met across the club, just briefly. Harry wasn’t even sure if Louis had actually seen him, because very shortly later Louis’ attention was diverted as the guy leaned down to whisper something in Louis’ ear. Harry watched as Louis bristled away from the guy after that and began dancing on his own, though not for long. Some other guy joined Louis soon. Harry couldn’t help but think that everyone wanted Louis. He didn’t blame them, he wanted Louis too. The way his skin looked under the lights was radiant, the way his hips moved to the beat was mesmerizing. He had a flash of hatred for those men touching him. For the others around Louis watching him the same way Harry was. 

He almost felt a bit possessive. It wasn’t that Louis was his per se, but really. Harry remembered the way Louis had felt in his arms the last time they’d been together, how soft Louis’ lips had been, how he had moaned in pleasure when Harry had hit that sweet spot inside of him. 

His pants grew slightly tighter around his front and he made his decision. He downed the rest of his drink, put the empty glass on the bar and made his way onto the dance floor, right up to Louis. There was no doubt this time that Louis had seen him. Louis stepped away from the guy, and Harry noted the disappointed and hungry look in the guy’s eyes. It made him smirk as Louis stepped closer to him, his hands coming to rest on Harry’s shoulders and him leaning forward to whisper in Harry’s ear. 

“Are you following me?” Louis asked, his breath hot on Harry’s ear.

“So what if I am?” Harry said back, his own hands clutching Louis’ waist, pulling him closer until Louis was pressed against his groin, moving to the music. Each movement made Harry’s pants even tighter.

Louis pulled his head back, smirking at him, and Harry knew it was because Louis could feel how excited he was at the moment. Louis’ hands sauntered down Harry’s chest until his knuckles brushed against Harry’s bulge. “This for me?”

Harry growled quietly at the touch. Taking a step back, he grabbed Louis’ hand and turned, pulling them off of the dance floor. Louis gave no resistance, letting Harry pull him as he wanted. Harry guided them to the bathroom, shutting the door behind them and pressing Louis against the wall. 

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” Louis breathed as Harry stepped closer to him again, pressing their bodies together. 

Harry didn’t answer, instead leaning forward to connect their lips, his hands bunching up Louis’ shirt at his hips. “They all want you,” Harry breathed against his jaw as he moved his lips further down, biting lightly at Louis’ skin. Louis’ hands grabbed at Harry’s hair as he threw his head back against the door, giving Harry access to his neck. “They all want you, don’t they?”

Harry was a little dazed from the alcohol and the music and fuck, Louis’ hands pulling at his hair. He ground his hips against Louis, letting Louis feel how hard his cock was for him. “Fuck, Harry,” Louis sighed. 

Harry kissed his neck incessantly, pulling Louis’ shirt up. “This is what you wanted, wasn’t it? When you let those guys dance on you like that,” he said against Louis’ neck. “When you let them touch you like that.”

“Someone sounds jealous,” Louis said with a smirk.

Harry growled and pulled back, their eyes meeting. Harry saw the challenge in Louis’ eyes and smirked. His hands reached down to undo Louis’ trousers. “Jealous when it’s going to be my cock in you in a moment? Hardly,” he said slowly, his eyes never leaving Louis’. 

“Before you continue to go all caveman on me,” Louis managed to get out, pushing Harry’s hands away from his open trousers, “you are crazy if you think you’re putting anything in me without lube. I have a table read tomorrow and I am not sitting there all uncomfortable because you’re jealous.”

That made Harry pause for a moment. As much as he had wanted Louis since the moment he had seen him on the dance floor, he didn’t want to hurt him, so he let some of the jealousy seep out. Disappointed, Harry grew confused when he saw Louis grin. Louis fished a packet of lube and a condom out of his pocket and Harry couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “You brought lube to a club.”

“Never know what’s going to happen,” Louis shrugged. “Have to protect my greatest asset, don’t I? Now,” he pressed the packet against Harry’s chest. “Can we get on with this before I have to go find that guy from the dance floor?”

Harry growled, pushing himself back into the hungry, jealous state, leaning forward to kiss him again as he grabbed the packets and put them into his own pocket. He went back to undoing Louis’ trousers, pushing them down over his hips to his knees. Pulling back, Harry smirked. “You’ll still be sitting uncomfortable tomorrow, love.”

He turned Louis around before he could respond and pushed him against the door, stepping forward to press against his back. Harry put one hand on Louis’ hip, and the other in his hair, pulling Louis’ head to the side. Harry kissed Louis’ neck. “But I think you’ll like it,” he said against his skin. “Stay still for me, love.”

Harry pulled Louis’ boxers down as he knelt behind him. His hands kneaded Louis’ bum, feeling the flesh in his hands. He placed a light kiss at the base of Louis’ spine, his tongue grazing the skin gently. It was as if Harry was marking him, claiming him. Harry pulled his cheeks apart and gently blew on Louis’ puckered hole.

“Fuck, Harry,” Louis breathed out, his hands pressing hard against the door.

Harry smirked, hearing the small quiver in Louis’ voice now that Louis had an idea of what Harry was about to do. Harry didn’t make him wait long to confirm. He leaned forward and ran his tongue along his crack, deliberately missing Louis’ rosebud in his path. Louis sucked in a breath above him, and Harry took that as permission. He teased Louis a few more times, only letting his tongue grow closer to his hole while never quite touching. He heard Louis cursing softly under his breath every time Harry’s tongue missed his hole. Harry smirked, and finally gave Louis what he wanted. His tongue circled Louis’ puckered hole, pulling his cheeks further apart. Harry straightened his tongue and gently pushed forward into Louis.

“Fuck, that’s good,” Louis moaned as Harry continued to tongue his ass. That was all Harry needed. He fucked Louis’ ass with his tongue, starting slow but soon picking up speed as he got further into Louis. He could hear Louis hitting the door with his hand above him at the feeling, but Harry was preoccupied. He wanted Louis ready for his cock, and more than that, he wanted Louis to scream his name. His fingers pressed tightly into Louis’ skin as he buried his face further in between his cheeks, trying to taste as much of Louis as he could.

Harry had been hard since he had seen Louis on the dance floor, since he had imagined exactly this as he watched Louis with that guy. His cock was painfully hard now, and Harry knew he needed to get inside Louis soon. He reluctantly pulled away from Louis’ ass, his hand moving to dig into his pocket and grab the lube packet Louis had given him. He opened the packet and put some on his fingers, reaching forward to press one finger into Louis as he stood, pressing his chest against Louis’ back.

Louis groaned and leaned his head against the door. Harry kissed Louis’ neck as he began pumping his finger in Louis’ ass, trying to find that sweet spot. He ground his cock against Louis’ hip, trying to get some relief. It wasn’t enough. Fuck, it wouldn’t be enough until he could sink into Louis and fuck him fast and hard and have Louis moaning Harry’s name. He started to mumble into Louis’ neck, encouragement and filthy things, whole string of words he couldn’t recall if you asked him. He sped his finger up, adding another gently. He knew the second he hit Louis’ prostate when Louis groaned, “Harry, fuck.”

Harry smirked to himself as he drove his fingers in to hit Louis’ prostate again and again. From the way Louis was shaking, Harry knew he must be close. But he didn’t want Louis to come yet, at least not until Harry was in him and it was Harry’s cock making Louis scream his name. He thrust his fingers in a few more times to make sure Louis was ready for him and then pulled away. Louis whimpered when Harry’s fingers left him. Harry quickly undid his own trousers, pulling the condom out of his pocket and putting it on. He was bristling with anticipation, ready to feel Louis around his cock. 

Harry grabbed Louis by the hips and leaned forward to kiss his neck one more time. “You can dance with whoever you want,” he said as he pulled Louis’ hips back and bent him over. Harry guided his cock to Louis’ ass, pressing the tip against Louis’ puckered hole. Louis pressed his hands against the door. “But just remember that those wolves can’t make you feel like this.” 

He pressed forward, groaning as Louis’ tight ass gripped his cock. He would never get enough of this, he could never get used to it, this feeling of initially entering Louis, of feeling him tight around Harry’s cock. “Oh, God,” Louis moaned, as Harry thrust in short bursts a few times, letting them both become accustomed to the feeling again. “Fuck, faster, Harry. Please. Oh, God.”

Harry gripped Louis’ hips tighter and continued to press all the way to the hilt. Fuck, Louis felt good. He took a breath to calm himself so he wouldn’t come immediately now that his cock had the relief it had been begging for. After a few moments, Harry started thrusting, trying to angle his thrusts to hit Louis’ sweet spot again. Louis was breathing hard, his fists clenched against the door, and Harry knew the exact moment he found it. Louis tightened around Harry even more, causing Harry to moan. “Fuck, Lou, you feel so good, babe,” he choked out as he hit the spot over and over again. “You feel so good around my cock.”

“I can’t,” Louis said, his head pressed against the door. “Please, oh, God, Harry.”

“They can’t give this to you, can they?” Harry said, leaning forward to press a kiss against his back. “Fuck, Lou, they can’t make you feel like this.”

“No,” Louis managed out, rocking his hips back, trying to get more. Harry give him exactly what he wanted and picked up his pace, slamming into Louis’ ass, his fingers digging into Louis’ skin. 

“Only me, right, babe?” Harry said. He wasn’t even sure what he was saying, to be honest. He was so lost in the feeling of Louis around him. He was drunk in it, in Louis. “Tell me it’s only me, Lou.”

“Fuck, Harry, only you,” Louis moaned. “I’m so close. Oh God.”

Harry wasn’t going to last much longer either, not with how good Louis felt. He reached around and took Louis’ cock in his hand, pumping him in time with his thrusts. “Going to come for me, aren’t you? Come for me, love.”

“Harry,” Louis screamed as he came all over Harry’s hand. Harry felt Louis squeeze tighter around his own cock, and after a few more thrusts, Harry moaned, following Louis over the edge.

“Fuck,” he bit out. They stood there, completely still, both breathing heavily and reveling in the high. Slowly, after a few moments, Harry pulled out and rolled the condom off, tossing it in the trash bin. Louis stood and turned around, still breathing heavily, a dazed and content look on his face. 

“Well, you weren’t a complete Neanderthal, I suppose,” he smirked at Harry.

Harry rolled his eyes with a grin on his face and threw a napkin at Louis. 

—-

In the end, Louis ended up keeping his word to Niall and going to the album release party. Well, okay, so he had been forced to keep his word, but he hadn’t gone quietly. He had made a fuss and tried to lock himself in his room, ignoring Niall’s incessant knocking and hollering. It hadn’t helped that Louis had taught Niall pretty early on in their roommateship how to break into a room using a credit card. He had then proceeded to offer no help as Niall picked out a pair of black skinny jeans and a red shirt that he insisted would bring out Louis’ eyes. Louis didn’t waste a second asking Niall how he even knew that. 

“It’s this thing called the internet,” Niall had said casually, flinging the shirt at him. “Maybe you’ve heard of it. It has more than cat videos and FIFA ‘15 cheats. Now put it on.”

Louis then proceeded to pretend to faint. His eyes were closed so he couldn’t see, but he was pretty sure Niall had rolled his eyes, and the next thing he knew, water was dumped on his face. 

“You had to fix your hair anyway,” Niall had laughed. Louis vowed he would take forever fixing his hair, maybe so long he’d miss the album release party altogether.

It wasn’t really that he didn’t want to see Harry, it was kind of that he didn’t want to see Harry Styles. And hear that dreadful song about him. 

In the end, Louis cooperated solely because Niall threatened to anonymously deliver video evidence of him wearing his Peter Pan costume to his castmates at the show and he knew he would never, ever, live that down. Besides, Louis reasoned, he could use this opportunity to tell anyone who would listen just what he thought about "Carolina", and that he thought it was rude to write a song about someone without telling them. He was sure that would get back to Harry, and he could therefore tell Harry off without actually talking to him. He’d promised Niall he would go, but the Irishman hadn’t said anything about speaking to Harry Styles. That made Louis feel a bit better about the whole thing.

Now, he was walking into Club Flamingo, a new club that had opened in LA. Louis didn’t want to admit he was impressed with it. Apparently the old warehouse turned nightclub was notoriously exclusive. Word on the proverbial street was that Kanye West had tried to launch his latest fashion show here, and they’d turned him down. How Harry had managed to hold his album release party here, Louis had no idea.

He could hear "Carolina" playing as he entered the club, and well, if Louis said that didn’t make him want to run and leave, he’d be lying. Instead of running, however, Louis held his head up high and walked in, he even held back the retching noises. He was angry, and well, he wanted Harry to know what he had done was not okay, not in the slightest. He’d been too flustered when he was on the show, he hadn’t really been able to think straight. He’d gotten his shit together since then though and he was going to give Harry a piece of his mind. 

He stood at the top bannister, looking down at the party. Louis didn’t know most of the people in attendance, but that was okay with him. He did best when he was meeting new people. The shock of his antics always amused him. 

Louis froze when he saw Harry. He was standing near the bar with a drink in his hand, talking to a pretty brunette. Louis was not ready for this. He talked a big game to Niall for sure, and in his own head of course, but Harry had written a song about him. Not just any song, but the song. The song he was using to launch his entire fucking album. Like what the fuck. 

He was not prepared to face the magnitude of that, especially when he didn’t even understand it. He watched as the girl walked away and Harry’s gaze wandered around the club. Louis’ breath hitched because he knew what was going to happen before it did. Harry looked up to where Louis was standing, and their eyes met. Louis watched with bated breath as Harry’s eyes widened in shock just briefly, as if he was surprised Louis had actually shown up, and then turned hopeful. Louis couldn’t look away. 

They stared at each other for a long moment, neither of them looking away, neither of them even moving. Louis gripped the bannister pole harder. He vaguely registered "Carolina" ending and another song starting. He didn’t even comprehend what the song was saying until he heard the words “I’m having your baby, it’s none of your business.” A vague memory came back to him, and just like that, the spell was broken. Louis looked away. His gaze shifted first to the DJ booth and the speakers this new song was blaring from, and then at the ceiling. He needed to look anywhere except at Harry. Because Harry hadn’t just written a song about him. He hadn’t just written "Carolina" about Louis. He had written this song as well, whatever it was called. He had been drunk on the ecstasy laced punch the night he had said that to Harry, but Louis remembered it. He remembered every second of it, laughing into the night and tugging Harry off on some random person’s roof, and apparently, Harry did too. He closed his eyes and listened to the song. Harry even squeezed in Melissa’s cactus. He’d be impressed if it wasn’t his own words sung back to him.

Louis braved another look in Harry’s direction near the bar, but Harry had disappeared. Louis’ gaze shifted around quickly, trying to find him and saw Harry making his way to the stairs, to Louis. The panic set in full throttle then. He wasn’t ready. He couldn’t do this. He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding when he saw some man intercept Harry’s path. 

Louis had two options now. He could high tail it and run home. He could do that and cry to Niall and get drunk and try to forget this whole thing and the fact that Harry Styles ever existed. Or he could walk down into the party and pretend to have a good time and avoid Harry like the plague, just to make him suffer. He was going to turn around and leave until he heard the next song. “In the middle of the night, when wolves come out, headed straight for your heart.” 

He listened for a moment to the lyrics, a song about want and rabid jealousy. Louis thought back to that night in the club, when he had seen Harry out and accused him of following him. Harry had been jealous that night if the way he had dragged Louis into the bathroom and fucked him proper had been any indication. Louis had been drunk that night, but he vaguely remembered Harry whispering things against his skin, something about wolves and how everyone wanted Louis. 

Louis’ eyes went wide. The last one could have been a stretch, maybe, but the odds weren’t in Harry’s favor. So, that was three songs. Three songs that Harry had written about him. Harry had taken Louis, had taken their private moments together, and put them out there for the world to see. Okay, so no one knew that these songs were about Louis. But Louis knew, and so did Harry. Louis decided then that he wasn’t going to make this easy for Harry. He wasn’t just going to leave and pretend that this was okay. 

And so, he walked down the metal steps slowly, counting each step as he went to calm himself down. He could do this. He had to do this. He moved through the crowd, keeping Harry’s location on his radar, making sure he knew exactly where Harry was in case he needed to make a break for it. Avoiding Harry at his own album release party was something Louis could do. He just had to be careful. He helped himself to a champagne glass from a passing waiter, his eyes wandering around the place. There were large photographs everywhere on the walls, mostly in black and white. While most were of random things, a street sign, a fire hydrant, there were a few of Harry in different poses, like one with Harry sitting on a stool, smiling fully at the camera. He walked over to it. Louis stared at it for a moment too long. It looked like Harry had been laughing, and the photographer had taken the photo at just the right moment so that Harry’s dimples were in full force, and the glint in his eye was captivating, bringing Louis into the joke, whatever it was. He was so caught up in the photo that he didn’t realize until it was too late to run that Harry was standing next to him, his eyes trained solely and completely on Louis’ face. 

“Louis,” Harry breathed. “You came.”

He was standing close enough that Louis could hear him crystal clear, despite the fact that there was music playing and loud conversations and Harry’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Louis took an obvious step back, putting some distance between them. “Well, I was invited,” he said casually, trying not to punch Harry immediately. He kept his eyes focused solely on the picture. “And seeing as I’m the subject of many of these songs, I figured I should.”

“I’ve been trying to call you,” Harry said. He spoke louder now, clearly picking up what Louis was dropping down as he didn’t move closer. 

“And I’ve been exercising my right to decline said calls,” Louis said.

“Louis,” Harry started. 

But Louis cut him off. “I googled you, you know, after I heard "Carolina" for the first time. Imagine my surprise to see you had been selling out shows in London for a couple of years now. That’s not exactly weddings and bar mitzvahs like you said.”

“I never said—,” Harry tried again.

Again, Louis didn’t let him speak. “You never said anything actually, about anything.”

“Louis, please, I—.”

“You wrote three songs about me,” Louis hissed.

“It’s not what you—.”

“You wrote _at least_ three songs about me that everyone is going to hear. You wrote about fucking me,” Louis said, his anger seeping into his voice. He finally turned his head to look at Harry. “My family is going to hear these songs.”

“Louis, please let me explain,” Harry pleaded.

“The thing that I can’t understand, though, is that we don’t even really know each other, do we? We’ve hung out all of what, five times, give or take. Just because I’ve let you fuck me doesn’t mean you know me, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean you get to write about it like I’m this person you know.”

They were interrupted by someone coming over and clapping Harry on the shoulder. Louis recognized him immediately as Irving Azoff. “Harry, Shania Twain just showed up. Come, I’ll introduce you.”

“Okay, just a second, Irving,” Harry promised and Irving nodded with a glance at Louis. Louis didn’t like the look in his eye, like he knew. He knew what Harry had done. 

Harry waited until Irving had wandered off to speak again. “Louis, please, I just need to talk to you. I just need to explain.”

“Shania Twain is waiting, Harry,” Louis said softly. He didn’t want to keep doing this, having this conversation. It was exhausting. 

“Then after, please,” Harry didn’t move. 

“I don’t think this is the right place to have this conversation,” Louis said.

“You won’t pick up my calls,” Harry said. “I just — I need to explain. I owe you an explanation.”

“You owe me royalty,” Louis murmured. 

Harry cringed. “Can we talk later, please? I can call you, and you can actually pick up?”

Louis sighed, realizing Harry wasn’t going to move until he gave in. “Fine, I’ll pick up.”

“Promise?”

“I promise,” Louis said. “Now go, please. Before they put two and two together and realize you wrote your whole album about me.”

Harry sighed in relief, a small smile coming to his lips. “Thanks, Tommo.” He turned and walked over to where Irving was standing with Shania Twain. 

Louis watched him for a second, seeing how easy it was for him to smile and change his whole demeanor. Shania Twain was clearly eating up whatever Harry was saying. Louis had to hand it to him. He was charming as fuck, and incredibly good looking, and it made Louis feel a little better for falling for it. He chugged the rest of his champagne and headed to the bar. He needed something stronger. He started to order a vodka and sprite and then remembered that was what Harry had been drinking the first time they met. “Actually, scratch that. I’ll take a gin and tonic, please,” he told the bartender. Harry wasn’t there to hear him, but Louis still felt a bit like he won. With his drink in hand, he turned and leaned back against the bar. 

He was deeply regretting staying. No, he was regretting ever meeting Niall so that he could force him to come tonight. No, he was regretting going to Liam’s party that night and meeting Harry. He should have just stayed home. 

“You a friend of Harry’s?” Someone broke into his thoughts. 

He turned his head to see the pretty brunette Harry had been talking to when he walked in standing next to him. “No, I barely know him.”

“That seemed like a pretty heated conversation for someone you barely know,” the girl said with a smirk. 

“That wasn’t a heated conversation,” Louis insisted, slightly annoyed. 

“It was definitely heated,” she said. “He was giving you his puppy dog eyes. He only does that when he knows he’s in the wrong. So what did he do? Want me to beat him up for you?”

Louis resisted the urge to laugh. “Like I said, I barely know him, but clearly you do.”

“A bit, yeah,” she said, a small secretive smile on her face. “I know him enough to know I can definitely kick his arse. So fancy party, huh? I heard Kanye West got rejected hosting an event here.”

“And yet somehow, Harry was able to pull it off,” Louis said.

“Gotta know all the right people,” she said. “Isn’t that how this city works? 

“Maybe the owner is a big Taylor Swift fan.”

The girl laughed. “Probably, though that might not work in Harry’s favor either.”

“He probably used his dimples,” Louis said, and if his voice was just a tad bit begrudging, well maybe she didn’t hear it.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she said. “Like look at that.” He followed her gaze to where Harry was standing talking to some redhead. The girl was leaning in, and it was very clear she was flirting with Harry. Louis wanted to look away, but he stopped himself. “She has no idea what hit her. Poor girl.”

“It’s really unfair, to be honest,” Louis grumbled. 

“Many people have fallen prey to it,” she nodded in agreement.

“Oh? He pull that on you too?” Louis asked.

She laughed at that, hard. “That would never happen.”

Louis didn’t get it, especially because he knew what the full force of Harry’s dimples could do. He’d seen it, he’d felt it. 

“You’re funny,” she said. “I think I like you.”

They fell into a comfortable silence then, just watching the party. “So, what do you think about the album?” She asked after a few minutes. “You like it?”

“Not at all,” he responded without hesitation. “He writes about all these people in these ridiculous songs, and I guarantee you they don’t even know it or him. They’ll probably hear some song on the radio or when they’re out at the store or on TV and just be like ‘I don’t even know him, why is he singing about me?’”

She looked at him oddly, which Louis chalked up to her being some kind of superfan or friend of Harry’s. It was weird though, because she was still smiling. “What did you say your name was?”

“Louis,” he offered her his hand.

“Hi, I’m Gemma,” she shook it. “Gemma Styles.”

Louis wasn’t really a facepalm kind of guy. He didn’t often feel like he had put his foot in his mouth. But right here, in this instance, he definitely deserved a facepalm. “You’re his sister,” he said. He didn’t know how he hadn’t seen it before. They looked alike with the same eyes and those dimples. 

“I am,” she grinned. 

“And that’s my cue to run away,” Louis said.

Gemma laughed. “No, don’t, I’m enjoying our conversation. You’re funny and I think I like you, remember?”

“I figured that must have changed once I completely shit on your brother,” Louis grumbled.

“Nah, he needs to be brought back to earth from time to time,” she shrugged it off. “I’ve seen your show by the way, he told me I might like it. He was right. We also watched Grease Live. I started to wonder why my brother was suddenly into so much American TV, you know? But I totally get it now.”

“I don’t even really know him,” he said and then grimaced. “We never really did too much talking, if you know what I mean.”

She made a face. “I don’t want to know what you mean. He’s my little brother, that’s too much information. However, like I said, that was a pretty heated conversation before I came over here, and I don’t know what it was about, but he gave you the puppy eyes which means he screwed something up. So don’t go easy on him, yeah? Bring him down to earth, Louis.”

And with that, she clinked her glass against his and walked away. Louis watched her walk over to Harry, whispering something in his ear that made Harry blush bright red. Louis had a feeling it was about him when Harry looked over at him, but Louis didn’t wait to find out. He chugged the rest of his drink, put the glass down on the bar and did what he should have done the moment he walked in. He hightailed it out of there.

 

\---

_READY TO RUN_

Harry woke up before Louis. He was surprised to see him still there in Harry’s bed, but he wasn’t about to complain. They’d been having a lot of fun together, and if nothing else it was nice to know someone he could have a good time with in LA. Harry got out of bed quietly and after using the bathroom he headed downstairs to survey the damage. He knew it was probably going to be a wreck because he had abandoned the party early to be with Louis. But it was worth it. 

When he made it to the living room he was pleased to see it in decent(ish) shape. The kitchen was about the same, although the counters were sticky and his recycling was overflowing. He was pretty impressed he hadn’t just trashed the rental.

Harry checked the fridge, scratching his bare stomach absentmindedly. He pulled out a few different ingredients and a pan from next to the stove. He mixed everything lazily and started humming while he worked. He was still trying to get the bridge in "End of The Day" right. He fumbled through the lyrics he’d been working on, the music not quite right, and then full on sang the end of the song. His voice was scratchy from sleep, a little deeper and huskier than usual, and it suited the song better than he expected it to. 

He’d just finished singing, back to humming the same line over and over again, when he heard soft feet padding across the hardwood floors. He looked up to see Louis standing at the edge of the kitchen in his pants and one of Harry’s t-shirts. Harry couldn’t help the soft smile that came onto his face. 

“Are those pancakes?” Louis asked, sniffing the air, and moving closer as if drawn in by the scent. 

“I’ve made them the American way - extra fluffy.”

“How thoughtful,” Louis said. The words themselves sounded like sarcasm, but the way he said it, soft, and almost more for himself, told Harry a different story. 

Harry bit his lip to keep himself from saying anything back. Instead he flipped a pancake one last time and took it out of the pan. He poured in the remaining batter and left it to heat up. 

“So,” Louis said, hoisting himself onto the countertop. “Are we just stealing from rich people’s kitchens now?”

Harry let out a surprised laugh. “Is making pancakes even stealing?”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “Okay, then are we just cooking in rich people’s homes? I’m totally game for it, but what if we get caught. Is it still breaking and entering if we’ve been here all night?”

“No one is going to catch us, Louis,” Harry said with a laugh. 

“Did you murder them?”

“No!” Harry said still laughing. “This is my mansion for now.”

“Oh.” Louis paused. “That makes sense I guess. House sitting is a nice thing to do.”

House sitting was a strange term for renting, but Harry didn’t feel like talking about his living situation any longer and breakfast was done so he dropped it. Instead he said, “I’m glad to know you would be on board even if I was a murderer though.”

Louis shrugged and accepted a plate from Harry with a cheeky grin. “It helps that you’re cute.”

Harry let out a laugh and pulled out a stool opposite of where Louis was still sitting on the counter. He felt something in his chest stutter at Louis’ words, but it was heartburn. They ate breakfast slowly and talked about the night before - the funny things people had done and Louis pulled up entertaining videos he found on his friends’ Instagram Stories. 

When he finished eating, Harry didn’t feel ready for Louis to leave yet. Louis didn’t seem to want to either, he was slowly working his way through the last pancake taking smaller and smaller bites. 

“So, I was thinking of avoiding cleaning by lounging by the pool,” Harry said. “You in?”

“Is this just another excuse to get my top off?” Louis said with a grin. 

“Of course!”

“Then I’m in,” he said with a laugh. 

They left their dishes in the sink and moved out through the sliding doors onto the patio. The sun was shining brightly and the air was warm, even though it was still winter. They both collapsed onto loungers and Louis did indeed pull off Harry’s shirt. He was almost sad to see it go. 

“It’s always a good day to work on my tan,” Louis said, with an arm laid across his eyes. “I gotta be to work by four. Can you make sure I don’t fall asleep?”

“Yeah, of course,” Harry said. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, the sun warming his skin. “Where do you work?”

“A really crappy shoe store.” Louis said. “You know Zayn Malik, the model?”

“Of course, his face is everywhere.”

“We used to work there together a couple of years ago.” Louis let out a soft laugh and then said fondly. “You wouldn’t believe with a face like that how big of a loser he is.”

Harry chuckled. “That’s what brought you out to California then? Your undying devotion to retail?”

Louis let out a gush of air, “No, of course not. I dropped out of college halfway through - decided an English Lit degree wasn’t for me. I bummed around my hometown for a couple of months and then my Grandma said ‘Tommo, son, you better start swimming before you drown.’ So I moved out here a month later. The rest is, as they say, history.”

“Your Grandmother does not call you Tommo,” Harry said disbelievingly.

Louis let out a laugh. “Nobody ever called me by my first name until I got to college. I don’t think the people back home even know it. I was always Tommo.”

“Louis,” Harry said, elongating the word. 

“No one says it quite like you do, Popstar,” Louis said with a laugh. “Did you always dream of coming to LA?”

“No, I didn’t. It’s a little bit too far from my family, but it’s a tough business. LA is the place to be.” Harry shrugged, his shoulders scratching against the lounge chair. “What about you?”

“I guess I figured I’d end up here one way or another. I thought it would be something a little more glamorous… but I’m working on it.”

Harry nodded. He understood that. Even though he had risen to fame on the X Factor, he knew the climb was hard. “It’ll happen, I can tell.”

Louis turned towards him, his arm falling to rest against his neck and a smile on his face. “Oh you can? How?”

“I just can. You’ve got that X Factor,” Harry said with a cheeky grin. 

“Okay, Simon Cowell.” Louis rolled his eyes. “But I don’t disagree. It feels different now. I feel ready.”

“Ready for what?” Harry asked softly. 

“Ready to make it. To do what it takes. To work hard.” Louis put his arm over his eyes again. “I felt the same when I came out here. I was ready to run. Didn’t you feel that?”

Harry was still staring at Louis’ face, mostly covered by his tan arm and a dark shadow. But he could see the curve of his jaw, the gentle sweep of his hair and just the corner crinkle of his eye. Was this what he meant? Right here? It felt like it. Like something was changing. 

“Yeah, I think I know exactly what you mean.”

\---

Louis pushed his hair back out of his face and squinted up at the large mansion in front of him. Harry had called him the day after his album party, and that might have impressed Louis just a bit, because he knew Harry must have been knee deep in promo. Their schedules weren’t able to align for over a week. Now it was Wednesday afternoon and he was finally standing outside waitng for Harry to answer the door.

Harry answered the door in a brightly colored shirt, buttoned halfway down his chest and Adidas bottoms. He shouldn’t have been able to make that look good, but he did. 

“Hey Louis,” Harry said with a small smile. He stepped aside so Louis could walk into the house past him. 

“Where do you want to do this thing?” Louis asked. He bounced on the balls of his feet slightly. He was anxious about the talk and he still had a lot of residual anger. 

“Did you want to sit outside?” Harry asked, biting his lip. 

Louis nodded his head once, but didn’t say anything as he made his way past Harry towards the sliding doors. They were already open and letting in a warm breeze. Louis spared the kitchen a glance as he walked past. He could see himself months ago sitting on the kitchen counter, flirting with Harry completely sober. 

He’d tried to forget waking up in what he thought was a random bed that morning, the sheets next to him still slightly warm. But he’d smelled something delicious cooking and had snagged a t-shirt from the dresser before making his way downstairs. 

He had tried to ignore the warm look in Harry’s eyes as he made Louis breakfast. 

When he stepped outside the sun was shining brightly, nearly blinding him with the glare off the pool. He settled into the same lounger as before. Harry did as well, positioning himself directly across from him, their knees nearly touching. 

They sat quietly for a minute before Harry cleared his throat and said, “I don’t know where to begin.”

That was all it took for Louis to get going. “You wrote an entire fucking album about me and didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me before I had to hear my life story set to music in the Today Show! What the fuck, Harry! I didn’t even have any idea that you were like famous, or whatever, so color me surprised to find some guy I barely know singing about how much he wants me! It’s creepy! And it’s crazy! Why would you do that?”

Louis stopped to take a breath and saw Harry wince at his words. 

“You’re not wrong. I probably should have called you first.”

“No shit,” Louis huffed. 

“I wanted to, but it had been so long since we’d seen each other and we never really saw each other on purpose. So I just… didn’t. That was wrong of me.”

He at least had the decency to look ashamed about it, but Louis could still feel the anger boiling up inside of him. 

“You know what I don’t get?” He said, his voice getting more firm with each word. “I read some of the shit you said about your album. You called it ‘honest’. You said all of these songs meant something to you because they felt personal. How can that be true? Were you just lying? We don’t even know each other. You wrote love songs and jealousy songs and songs about heartbreak. We didn’t have any of that.”

He saw Harry’s mouth turn down in a frown, but he continued anyway. “I don’t say any of that to be mean, it’s just the truth, my truth. I don’t even know the first thing about you, I didn’t even know your last name until I heard it on National TV. Hell, we’re sitting here in your house right now, and I thought you were house sitting for some millionaire, but you’re not. I just don’t get it.”

“To be fair, I’m just renting, so technically it’s not mine,” Harry said sheepishly.

Louis could have slapped him. “That is so not the point.”

“I know,” Harry said quietly.

Louis shook his head and then leaned back slightly. He’d been pushed forward, his elbows digging into his knees and speaking directly to harry. He’d said what he had to say, now he just needed to hear from Harry. He needed to know why, or how, or even when. He just needed some sort of explanation or reasoning or anything, something to tell him how he was supposed to feel right now.

“I’m glad we didn’t talk about this at the party after all,” Harry chuckled awkwardly. He scratched at the back of his neck. “I guess I want to start with the comment about being honest.”

Harry paused and Louis said, “I’m listening.”

“I think a lot of people get confused with honesty and truthfulness. Just because I think I’m being honest doesn’t mean that everything I sang about is 100% true all of the time.”

“I don’t think I know what you mean.”

“I guess by being honest I mean being authentic. On my last album, I only wrote on a couple of songs. When I would sing them live, it felt like I was just singing words, you know? None of it meant anything to me. So when I set out to write this album I wanted to be as honest, as authentic, as I could be with my lyrics. I wanted to portray real experiences and real emotions.”

“But they weren’t real, were they? You don’t love me. You can’t. We barely know each other, and this isn’t the movies. People don’t just fall in love like that. You don’t feel that kind of jealousy, do you? I mean, how could you?”

“Have you ever felt a spark of emotion in the moment and you know it’s not real or justified, or even going to last for more than a second, but you think ‘wow I can’t believe I just felt that way?’” Harry asked. “Those were moments I was clinging on to. They were all real emotions I felt, whether for a second or five minutes or just for the night. But I sat inside those feelings and I thought about what it would be like if that was how I felt, if that love was mine or that pain was mine. And I used that to fuel my songs. I was in such a songwriting rut when I came to LA. I’d written a couple of great songs in Jamaica and when I got to LA everything I was writing about was cliched or just what I thought people wanted to hear.”

He checked to make sure Louis was still listening, but Louis’ eyes were glued to his face. So, he continued, “When we met that first night you were just off the wall. Someone said you were like getting hit by a storm and I wasn’t sure if that was going to be a good thing or not. But while I was there feeling bad for myself and my lagging creativity you were, like, vivacious. I don’t know. It was just a lot to take in and I took it all in, believe me. By the time I left that night I had the melody to “Carolina” already figured out. It’s like I could feel it, like it was real already and I hadn’t even written it yet.”

Louis exhaled a long breath. That was a lot to take in. 

“I just knew I wanted to feel that way again, to write a song that way again.” Harry continued. “I went to some parties hoping to see you there. I didn’t intend to take advantage of you or purposefully plagiarize your life. I guess I wasn’t really thinking about the implications of what I was writing and I apologize for that.”

“I…” Louis started. He wasn’t really sure what to say to that. Then he blurted out, “I listened to your album. It was actually really good. I wanted to hate it.” He admitted. 

He thought he could see the tips of Harry’s ears go red. “You did?”

“Yeah, at first when I listened I could only hear myself and see myself in the songs. It made me cringe.” Louis said, looking down at his hands. “But the more I listened, the more I think I can understand what you’re saying right now. It did feel authentic, which is why I was having such a hard time resonating what I was hearing with what I lived through.”

“I’m sorry about that… I was trying to tell you, but I was going about it in the worst way possible.”

“I wasn’t really giving you a chance anyway. I was so pissed about “Carolina” I could barely see straight. I thought any minute someone was going to figure out it was about me, I just kept waiting for someone to jump out at me and say ‘gotcha!’” Louis saw Harry cringe slightly at that. It felt good though, to actually say out loud what he had been feeling. “That first day when it came out I saw a whole slew of articles claiming it was about some girl and I wanted to feel relieved, I should have felt relieved, but I also kind of felt like it was taken away from me? Does that even make sense? Like I hated that the song was about me, but I didn’t want it to be about anyone else.”

Harry was quiet for a moment. “Since we are being honest with each other, I had really wanted to release the song how I originally wrote it.” Harry started to hum, “You’ve got a family in Carolina, so far away but you say I remind you of home…” 

“I’m assuming they weren’t too keen on a song like that?”

“They sent a lot of my stuff to one of the writers from the first album in order to keep some of the sound consistent. Especially since I wanted this to be the lead single. My manager, Jeff, told me that the label was set to release it before I saw the final changes. They’d changed all the pronouns, I guess assuming from the chorus that it was about a girl, like I knew most people would anway.” Harry laughed slightly and looked Louis in the eye. “It originally didn’t say Townes, as I’m sure you guessed. It was hard to change the way I sang the verse so that it wasn’t Tommo anymore.”

Louis sucked in a breath. 

“They found that girl who they thought fit the song well enough and inserted her in there instead. Then they planned a whole run of promo around it.” Harry shrugged. “That’s the music industry I guess.”

“That sucks,” Louis said truthfully. The acting business wasn’t much different. So much of it was fake PR crap. He’d had his own experience with that when the tabloids had run that story about him and Vanessa Hudgens after Grease Love came out. 

“It is what it is,” Harry said. “I’m not upset about it anymore. It really bothered me at first, but I know what the songs mean to me. I know what they are saying. The feeling in them doesn’t change just because of how it's presented to the world. They don’t lose any value to me.”

Louis sat quietly for a moment and just looked at Harry. This was probably the longest conversation they’d ever had - combined. He’d learned more about how Harry though and how he felt than he thought he would when he was coming here. And he liked what he heard. 

He cleared his throat. “I think I get what you’re saying. That’s essentially what I was struggling with - aligning what I experienced with what I was hearing. I mean songs like ‘Ready To Run,’ that freaked me out a bit.”

Harry let out a laugh. “I don’t love you, don’t freak out.”

Louis wiped a hand dramatically over his forehead and said, “Phew!”

“But,” Harry said shyly. “I did realize I could genuinely like you that day. That the slightly erratic, but hilarious person you were when you were absolutely hammered, actually translated really well into sober you. You were still funny and you were still a little off the wall, but in a really good way.”

Louis smiled at that, he couldn’t help it. “Yeah?”

Harry bit his lip and then smiled back at him. “I still think I could, actually.”

Louis felt an actual storm of butterflies be released in his stomach. In that moment, he got it. The album wasn’t about claiming Louis, or putting his life on blast. It was about living and taking a leap of faith. “I think I understand what you mean now. About all of it.”

Harry smiled wider at him, and Louis couldn’t stop himself from smiling back. It wasn’t that they were in love. It was simply the possibility of it, given a chance. And maybe, just maybe, Louis was willing to do just that.

 

\---

_WOMAN and FROM THE DINING TABLE_

It wasn’t like they were together. They weren’t a “thing”. Sure, they hooked up pretty much every time they saw each other. But they weren’t boyfriends. There was no reason Harry should have been staring at his phone for the last hour just wondering why Louis hadn’t called yet. 

Yes, they’d had a nice time that time Louis had ended up staying the night. And if Harry had thought that meant it was leading somewhere that could rationally explain why he was staring at his phone, well, he didn’t have to admit it to anyone. He knew he was being ridiculous - he was starting to doubt if he even gave Louis his number at all. Quite frankly, Harry thought it was rude and heartbreaking.

He groaned and pulled up the browser on his phone. It wasn’t like he was stalking him. Louis had told him he was going to be part of Grease Live, and that he was going to be meeting with Steve Aoki on a possible collaboration. It wasn’t stalking if he just looked it up out of general interest, was it? After all, he was a big fan of both Grease and Steve Aoki. 

Harry closed the tab before the page on Grease loaded. It was definitely stalking, and they weren’t really anything. God, he needed to get out of the house and get his mind off of Louis. He got up and grabbed his keys. He needed some coconut oil for his bullet coffee. Maybe he’d go pick that up. Yes, that would be a nice distraction.

Unfortunately, the song that blasted out of his speaker reminded him of the party at Liam’s when they’d played fireball. God, what was wrong with him? He turned off the radio and drove the rest of the way to the store in silence, humming to himself. 

He walked through the grocery store absent-mindedly, grabbing a bunch of things he suddenly remembered he needed and a few things he definitely didn’t. A fan recognized him, and he stopped to pose for a quick picture and a nice chat before heading to the cashier. Louis was all but out of his mind while he waited his turn when he noticed a magazine on the rack next to him. His heart dropped. 

Louis was cuddling with Vanessa Hudgens on the bottom right of a US Weekly cover. What the fuck? It was like his brain couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. There was Louis. There was Vanessa Hudgens. Realistically it was just promo for the show. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Louis deleted his number and deleted his memory of Harry and that was that.

He tried not to, he really did. But Harry couldn’t stop himself from sneaking three copies of the magazine into his cart. Why did he need three? He wasn’t sure, but he did. He didn’t meet the cashier’s eyes as she rang all three up. 

Harry got into his car and pulled out one of the copies. Thankfully he had tinted windows so no one would see as he flipped through the magazine to the excerpt about Louis and Vanessa Hudgens. He read it twice before putting the magazine back into his bag, feeling his heart break. The picture wasn’t all it was. There was quite a bit about how the two had been spotted around LA, out and about spending most of their time together. There was a bit at the end that they’d even been seen at one of Steve’s shows in Las Vegas. 

Several hours later, when he had calmed down marginally, Harry went to the recording studio for a writing session with Jeff Bhaskar and Mitch Rowland. He had an idea of what he wanted to write. The imagine of Vanessa’s hand in Louis’ was quite present in his mind. He held on to it. He could use that. 

“Hey man,” Jeff clapped his hand, looking up from his computer as Harry walked in. 

Mitch nodded at him in acknowledgment. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, I kind of have an idea for a song,” Harry said, dropping into a chair.

“Let’s hear it,” Jeff said, leaning forward.

“Well, let’s say there’s this person who is like trying to make you jealous,” Harry said in what he hoped wasn’t a dejected tone. “And you’re seeing this person with someone else, and it’s like why are they touching you, that’s my job?”

Jeff and Mitch exchanged a smirk before looking at Harry. “Damn, Harry, who is this woman who is driving you so crazy?” Mitch said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great material for your album but first “Wolves” and now this one?”

“It might be time to look elsewhere for love, mate,” Jeff said. “After the album of course.”

Harry coughed. “It’s not really like that, it just seems like it would be a good song idea. I mean, personally I think if someone was doing that, they would just be so rude and should be able to see how devastating it is to other parties involved, but it’s not really about anyone.” He knew he was talking super fast and starting to ramble but he couldn’t help it.

Jeff laughed. “Okay, don’t tell us, lover boy. That could be a good idea. Singing about a mysterious woman driving you crazy.”

“Is it someone famous?” Mitch asked after a moment.

Harry squawked and Jeff laughed loudly at him and said. “You sound like a duck.” 

Harry smiled sheepishly. 

Mitch looked at him, pensive. “That could actually be a thing.”

Harry was glad when the conversation turned to his awkward duck sound and far, far away from his source of inspiration.

 

The song had actually been really cool when it was completed. “Woman” had such a different sound than the rest of the album and he loved the way the distorted his voice to incorporate the duck sound. It made the whole thing a little lighter. But he wasn’t quite ready to let go of his feeling of betrayal. 

He held onto it for days actually. Recalling the feeling when he was looking for inspiration. He knew he was being grumpy and acting like he’d been betrayed, which was bringing endless jokes from his band, but it didn’t feel over yet. He didn’t know if that was because he had words left to write or if he wasn’t ready to let go of Louis. 

He knew he was being ridiculous, because at the end of the day, he and Louis weren’t really anything. They weren’t a couple. They weren’t even dating. Sure, they’d had a nice morning by the pool, but Harry knew logically that they were just friends who sometimes slept together. If that. 

His phone starting ringing and he immediately grabbed it, thinking maybe it was Louis. Ridiculous. He tried not to feel too dejected when he was that it was Zayn FaceTiming him. That flew right out the window when the phone connected and he saw what Zayn was wearing. It was Harry’s shirt, the one he’d let Louis wear that morning he had stayed over and they had lounged about the pool. How did Zayn have it? Well, that was a stupid question. Zayn had it because Louis gave it to him obviously. The better question was why did Zayn have it?

“Hey, mate,” Zayn said. “What are you doing?”

“Not much,” Harry said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “What’s up?”

“Want to grab a pint with the boys later?” Zayn asked. “You’ve been so busy with your album stuff, we haven’t seen much of you lately.”

We. Who was we? Zayn and Louis? Were they together now? Was that why Louis had given him Harry’s shirt? “Who’s all going?” He tried not to sound too anxious as he leaned back in his chair.

“Just a couple of blokes,” Zayn shrugged. “Liam and that crowd.”

“Oh, like Louis and them?” Harry asked. He was sure he sounded too eager, but Zayn didn’t react so Harry hoped he hadn’t noticed. 

“I don’t think Louis is coming,” Zayn said. “He had rehearsals today.”

“Oh, okay.” He knew Zayn could hear the dejected tone that time from the way he raised one eyebrow on the screen. “I haven’t talked to him in a while, how’s that going, the show?”

“It’s good,” Zayn shrugged, acting as nonchalant as always, though Harry thought he saw a flicker of a smirk on Zayn’s face. It was gone too quickly for him to be sure though. “He’s enjoying it, and he gets to act extra, which, you know Louis, that’s his forte.”

Harry laughed. “Yeah, I’m glad for him.”

“Me too,” Zayn said. “So you in for the drink?”

“Yeah, text me the details,” Harry said. “I’ll come down for a bit.”

He said his goodbyes to Zayn and let out a breath. Maybe this was what he needed to stop sulking. He needed to go out and have a good time. It was obvious Louis wasn’t sitting around moping about Harry, and well, Harry deserved to have some fun too. But first, he got up from the dining room table to grab his notebook. He had just gotten another idea for a song.

—-

Louis didn’t often admit he was very, very much into the over the top romantic and super cheesy gestures. In fact, the cheesier, the better for him. However, as he leaned back on his hands next to Harry, he wouldn’t have loathed to admit that he was certainly blown away. Harry had brought him to a private beach where he’d set up a picnic by a bonfire. There were rose petals and candles around them, which, Louis knew was cheesy. And yet, he couldn’t help but love it as he looked out at the ocean. 

Harry lay back, leaning on his elbows with a content look on his face. They had just finished eating the dinner Harry had prepared for them, and Louis had to say that Harry’s impeccable cooking skills definitely added a point in his favor.

“Well,” Louis said, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. “As far as make up first dates go, I have to say this is not bad, Styles, not bad at all.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Harry said. “Zayn said it was too much, but I think he was just mad that he had to carry the firewood out here and as he repeatedly told me, there was sand everywhere.”

Louis snickered. “I can’t believe you actually got him to do manual labour. He must really like you.”

“Nah, Liam just threatened him and said he’d shave off his eyebrows if he didn’t help,” Harry said. “Zayn practically ran here after that. I’m a little worried that Liam might have been serious.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Louis laughed. 

They fell into a comfortable silence then, both just watching the waves. Louis was actually quite content like this, here with Harry. He had thought it would be weird, them being here on a first date. Their past encounters had mostly been quick and alcohol induced, or fueled by Louis’ anger over the songs Harry had written. But they had both agreed that they’d try, that they wanted to try this. It might have been mostly sex before, but Louis had found that he had actually enjoyed Harry’s company for more than that. In fact, his favorite moments were the moments before they slept together, and sometimes after, when they’d talk and laugh, when they’d just enjoy each other’s company. 

They still had a lot to get through. Louis wasn’t fully over finding out Harry had written songs about him over the television, and Harry knew he had screwed up. But they were trying, and so far, it was going quite well. He found he was enjoying getting to know Harry. They’d talked a bit lately over the phone, and by a bit, Louis meant that they’d been texting pretty heavily. It didn’t seem to really matter the order of events that had led them here. Instead, what mattered was that as they sat this close to each other, the sun setting over the horizon, Louis could see a bit of hazel in Harry’s eyes, something he had never noticed before.

Harry noticed Louis was no longer staring at the waves, but instead staring at him, and smiled sheepishly. “What? Do I have something on my face?” He asked.

“You have hazel in your eyes,” Louis said before he could stop himself. “I never noticed that before. I like it.”

Harry’s smile turned warm. He opened his mouth to respond, but Louis beat him to it, a smirk on his face. 

“I better not hear a song about that on the next album,” Louis said. The look on Harry’s face was relief as he registered Louis’ joking tone. That had been one topic they’d both been afraid to breach. But sitting here now, feeling the full effect of Harry’s dimples, Louis knew he wasn’t angry about it anymore. 

Harry laughed, and Louis could hear the audible relief in his voice. They could move past it. They would be okay. “No promises. I mean, that could be a golden line,” Harry said. “I could probably write a whole song about that.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “That would be a cheesy song. Why can’t you write about something interesting? Like fireball!”

Harry grimaced. “I think if I told the masses about fireball I would end up getting sued. It isn’t information to be given out lightly.”

Louis looked affronted. “I will have you know that fireball is the greatest game ever invented.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think people will thank me for it when they burn down their houses,” Harry said.

“Well, that’s what the fire extinguisher is for,” Louis said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Harry laughed. “Sorry, love, but I would rather not take on that liability. I don’t, however,” he leaned to the side so he was propped up on one elbow. His other hand moved up to graze Louis’ jawline. “Have any problem writing about how much I want to kiss you right now.”

Louis couldn’t help the blush that crept to his cheeks. It was such a corny line, and yet, so fitting amongst the rose petals and candles. Harry’s fingers trailed along his warmed cheeks as his thumb swiped gently across Louis’ bottom lip. 

There weren’t many times in his life that Louis Tomlinson was rendered speechless, but as he leaned down to kiss Harry, his own hands cupping Harry’s jaw, Louis found he had nothing to respond with. Because he wanted to kiss Harry too. He didn’t care if Harry wrote a hundred songs about it. He didn’t even care if the whole world knew they were about him. As their lips finally connected, Louis had a distinct feeling that this was only the beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! You can find us on tumblr at [ here](http://darkmarkburning.tumblr.com) & [here](http://harruandlou.tumblr.com) if you want to chat :) 
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> [Tumblr Post](http://harruandlou.tumblr.com/post/173975785100/carolina-given-a-chance-darkmarkburning)


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